HDN: Paradox Vengeance
by Tumis24
Summary: What becomes of a character when the author abandons them? He's been left behind while the author goes to work on a new story. Yet... someone comes to check in, just when he's given up.
1. A Mother

Histoire hurried here and there, getting ready to lock the doors of the Basilicom for the day. The book fairy sighed as she thought of what tomorrow would bring, in this world it really could be anything. There were thirty minutes until closing, yet she found herself ready to lock the doors, no one every came in during these final minutes anyway. Suddenly, as if to disprove her, a light knock echoed through the empty room. Histoire looked over at the door. There was a solid thirty seconds or so while Histoire formulated a thought process before she took any action. This was not the most opportune time for someone to come to the Basilicom, it was raining, cold, and frankly, just a gross kind of day out. The ground was wet, and squished under your boots as you tried to traverse it (not that Histoire knew that, she usually avoided the ground, sitting on top of her magical, inexplicably floating book most of the time) and, as the water ran down the streets, it would soak through your shoes and socks if you were careless enough to step in it, and, if you did, it would cause you misery for most of the rest of the day. This, however, was part of Histoire's legendary ability to go on tangents acting up, somehow she'd digressed entirely form the fact that someone had just knocked on the door. That was kind of important seeing as the plot wouldn't advance until she answered it.

'Who would be here at this hour?' The little fairy thought to herself, floating over to the door on her book. At the point when her hand touched the handle, however, she locked up in a slight mental panic. This was how she had been kidnapped last time it had happened. She glanced back towards Neptune's room, knowing that the CPU would be fast asleep at this point. Last time she had answered the door only to be pulled outside and taken to an abandoned castle, followed by several unpleasantries at the hands of a particularly annoying Dogoo. How had the stupid thing even knocked on the door? She had been saved by Neptune without so much as a scratch, but this was not something she wanted to go through again, it was not nearly a pleasant time, and frankly, she had advised any and everybody who asked, not to pay money for the experience. Histoire took a moment to reflect that this was the second time she'd gone off on a tangent in about as many paragraphs. Getting back to the subject at hand for the moment, now came the question of, 'Am I going to open the door, or not,' to Histoire. Then, she thought to herself, ' _Well, I've been simply idle here by the door for some time. If they were still at the door, they would have knocked again, right? Surely they just knocked to signify that they delivered a package or something_.' Seeing that, as mentioned before, it was raining, Histoire didn't want to leave whatever it was in the rain to lose value and usefulness, but what she found on the doorstep was slightly unnerving and very unexpected to say the least.

Sitting on the doorstep, was a small basket, a sheet laying over the top of it. The sheet wiggled about as if there were something underneath it, and it really didn't like the rain, and the basket itself was moving a little bit, almost doing a small dance from the wiggling. Histoire picked up the wiggling basket and had a good look at it. Whatever was under the sheet on this basket was very much able to move, and very well could have been a threat, so she made sure to do this carefully. When she began to pull back the sheet on top the first thing Histoire found was a tiny foot. Now she was curious, why was there a foot in the basket? Pulling the sheet off slightly more revealed another similar foot and a leg attached to either. Now Histoire's interest was piqued. She was fairly certain she knew what this was, but she was still trying to think of why it might be there. Removing the sheet all the way revealed a small boy of about the age of one, maybe not even that, silently dozing in the basket. He was dressed in a small shirt and tiny pants with similarly tiny slippers on each foot. In the basket was the name ' **Jayden** ' with the note ' _A Very Special Young Lad,_ ' both pinned to his shirt. Histoire was entirely confused now, sure she was interested, but this created so many questions that needed answers that she wasn't sure what to do. What was this baby doing here? Why was he here? Who had left him? Why had they left him? Um... why is he so small? Even for a baby, he was still much smaller than Histoire, which wasn't normal for a human child, unless he was to be extremely vertically challenged. To put it in perspective, this child could've probably fit inside a hollow coconut. Then, the boy, Jayden, opened his eyes and looked up at the fairy holding him. A tiny smile spread across his face as he sat up and looked at book fairy holding this basket he was sitting in. Histoire brought Jayden inside, her maternal instincts blowing all other questions away. If they had left him here, then he was to be her child, after he was the perfect size to be a baby to Histoire, and maybe she would make him the younger brother of Neptune and Nepgear some day. At this point in time, it was impossible to say. The one thing that was for certain though, is that tomorrow would not be as dreadful as she had pictured. Now, Histoire was looking forward to tomorrow, and the first day she would spend with her new son.

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 **A/n: And so begins a New Adventure! If you're reading this, then that means I have successfully updated and patched the grammar of this chapter to it's maximum. The original chapter had less content, and much less grammatical integrity. I have fixed this issue now, I hope it helps.**


	2. An Interesting Toddler

**Just a note, because I know some people who don't know this but...  
Bold typically indicates an action or attack.  
** _Italics indicate thinking or thought in_ general.  
Underlines can mean a variety of things, like titles and the like.  
Though I haven't done anything with underlines yet.  
 **Just felt like clearing that up, without further ado, enjoy Chapter 2 and Jayden's Fourth year.**

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Histoire was at her desk, Jayden playing with a toy truck underneath said desk. For being four years old now, he was an unusually quiet boy. He wouldn't ever bother Histoire while she was working, unless it was something very important, and frankly, he would sooner have taken care of it himself. He already knew how to walk and talk, not just speak words, but full coherent sentences, as well as possessing a writing skill over that of Neptune's, even if it wasn't saying much. As he did what Histoire thought was play with the truck, he was actually playing with a wooden sword he had found around the Basilicom that had previously been Neptune's. Histoire hadn't yet introduced the purple CPUs

Speaking of the CPU and respective candidate, neither of them yet knew about Jayden. Histoire had decided to raise him as her son, not as their younger brother, he didn't look ANYTHING like them, so it didn't seem fitting and would just raise too many questions from the other CPUs. Mainly questions that even she still didn't have answers for.. Histoire looked under her desk at the little boy who had pulled the truck back out and stashed the sword. His once grey hair had darkened and changed value to a light brown color, similar to the color of milk chocolate, and his eyes were confusing to say the least. They kind of shifted colors over time, blending from blue, to purple, to magenta, cleaning up into a red, then shifting to a brighter orange, and cycling though yellow, green, and cyan, before returning to blue, and violet, then shifting back to red. Also noteworthy, the luster of his eyes literally depended on the time of day and how much energy he had. They started off dull in the morning, and became more bright and shiny as the day went on, then darkened, and cloudier, and dull again as he got tired towards the evenings. It was also a really easy way to tell if he was paying attention or not as his eyes would become cloudy if he spaced out. Histoire had gotten used to him doing that quite a bit. There was a knock at the door again, this time however, it was smack in the middle of the day at two thirteen on the dot. Histoire checked on the boy quickly, before moving to answer the door. Without thinking (which was a bad idea) she pulled it open.

"Welcome to the Planeptune Basilic-ah!" Histoire had been grabbed on the wrist by the person at the door. She had grey skin and a hoodie on and seemed to be very intent on dragging Histoire away. What the girl had not been counting on, was someone else being there. Neptune and Nepgear were out on guild quests, making this was her opportunity to grab the oracle such that she might be able to halt the progress of stopping ASIC, so that her company could take over Planeptune. "Let go of me!" Histoire screamed, panicking at the thought of what might happen to Jayden if she left him alone with ASIC about. What Histoire had not thought of, was what Jayden might do in a situation like this.

Jayden had heard the struggles by the door. He pushed himself onto his feet, grabbed the wooden sword, leaving the toy truck where it was, and ran (or hobbled rather, running is rather difficult for toddlers) to the door. When he saw the situation, he didn't quite understand what was going on at first. As he tried to process what was happening he heard his mother scream: 'let go of me!' which the girl refused to do. Jayden now understood as he put both hands on the grip of the blade and rushed towards the grey-skinned girl, and promptly whacked her over the head with the wooden sword, temporarily dazing her and causing her to let go of Histoire, who hurriedly picked up the child and retreated slightly into the Basilicom lobby. Jayden looked at his mother, checking her over to make sure she was unharmed. When he confirmed this, he wriggled from her grasp and dropped to the floor, leveling his sword at the girl who was refusing to leave. The girl gave him an angry look.

"Little brat..." She pulled out what looked like a piece of a pipe. Jayden couldn't have imagined it being a very good weapon, but at the same time, he had a glorified, very slightly sharpened stick, so he wasn't about to tell her so. "I just need to talk to your mom, alright, kid? She'll be back when I'm done talking to her," She said attempting to fool the toddler, who she had poorly assumed was about as intelligent as a brick.

"It doesn't seem like she wants to talk to you," He responded. "Besides, you could have just called her on your telly-phone if you wanted to just talk." The girl seemed slightly taken aback at the mostly proper English coming from the little boy. Deciding she had no option but to knock him out and grab the oracle, she attempted to do just that, bringing the pipe down such that it might collide with his head, but Jayden had other ideas. He raised the sword over his head, blocking the downward strike and twisted his wooden stick in such a fashion that the girl was hit square in the stomach with the counter-weight (not sure why a counter-weight was necessary on a wooden sword, but it was, indeed there) of the stick,resulting in the girl dropping the pipe and doubling over. He grabbed the pipe, and held it backwards, pretending it was a sword, at the length it was, it may as well have been for him. Jayden had learned that it was improper to hit a lady, but he wasn't going to tolerate someone attempting to harm his mother. His mother was the one person that Jayden solidly knew, and he was very determined to keep her as long as he could. He loved his mother more than anything else, and something trying to hurt her just wouldn't fly. He waddled back over to his mother, who was still processing what had happened. "Are you okay, Mommy?"

"Y... Yes, Jayden. I am fine," The fairy stuttered slightly, recovering her wits and proudly patting Jayden's head. "Thanks to you, my little hero." Jayden smiled and enjoyed his mother's gentle touch. Nothing made him happier than when she was happy with him. He settled back down beneath the desk again and pulled out the truck once more.

 _Little hero..._ Jayden thought to himself. _I wanna be a hero!_ the toddler exclaimed in his head. Though a clichéd thought indeed, it carried a significant weight to him. So much so, in fact, that the thought stuck in his head for a solid several more years. A hero was a person that everyone remembered. Someone that everyone knew and either liked or feared depending on the kind of hero.

 _One day..._ he thought to himself, _I'll make the world remember me._

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 **A/n: Grammar edit is done on this chapter.**


	3. Mother's Birthday

**A/N: Really quick Shoutout to Blackfirekingkoncor for being my first follower, reviewer, and favoriter! Thanks dude!**

 **EDIT: I done goofed. There's a chapter that's supposed to be in between this one and Chapter One. That will be up shortly. Not that there are many people paying attention, I hardly noticed myself.**

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Jayden opened his eyes. He was sitting in the middle of the Basilicom Lobby, facing the wall. He couldn't remember when he'd gotten here. He also couldn't ignore the nagging feeling in the back of his head that suggested this had happened before. Jayden thought about it for a second, but that shouldn't be possible. Surely this hadn't happened before. As such, he ignored the feeling.

He checked the calendar. Today was Mother's Birthday, and Jayden had planned to get dinner for her, he just needed to pick up the things he needed. He had pre-ordered take away from Mother's favorite restaurant, so as to ensure that it was prepaid at the time. He poked his head over his mother's desk, the book fairy looking at him. "What is it, sweetie?" she asked with a smile. Jayden was barely tall enough to jump up and grab the lip of the counter where the desk was, let alone pull himself up to look over the thing. He looked at his mother, smiling back.

"I'm going to go get dinner now," He said, "it's for your birthday." She gave him an even warmer smile, patting him on the head.

"Thank you, baby," She said, running her fingers through his hair.

"I'll be back later." He ran out of the Basilicom knowing he was on a time limit. If he took too long then Mother would get suspicious. Luckily for him, the bakery was just across the way of the Basilicom. The restaurant, however, was on the other side of town, making this slightly more problematic. He timed it perfectly and arrived at the place just as the order was done being made. He grabbed the bag and stashed it in his inventory, knowing he was less likely to break or drop anything that way. As he got back to the Basilicom, he ducked into the bakery, walking up to the baker, Mr. Doh. "Can I have a Blue Pudding Cake please?" Jayden asked politely. Mr. Doh looked over the counter at the small boy in his establishment, smiling at him.

"Why are you in such a hurry, my boy?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"Cause, Mom's waiting for me across the street. It's her birthday and I want to get her a cake as a surprise, she really likes pudding cakes." Jayden said quickly. The man knew who Jayden had meant by 'Mom.' Histoire had taken him in here before to get him things like cakes and muffins, Jayden's favorite breakfast being oven-fresh pumpkin muffins. Mr. Doh quickly grabbed Jayden and pulled him over the counter and pushing him underneath as Histoire walked in. He winked at the small boy under the counter.

"What can I get for you, Milady?" The baker asked, icing the cake Jayden had asked for as the fairy drifted through the doors. Histoire looked at the cake, imagining how good it would be when it was done. She explained that she had come in looking for Jayden, he had left to go get dinner, but he hadn't come back yet. Jayden raised one finger to his lips under the counter, looking at the baker. "Well, he left just a little while ago, didn't he? He probably just had to wait for them to finish making the order, I'm sure he'll be back soon. He's a reliable boy." the baker casually, without even so much as glancing at the boy under the counter.

"Would you mind if I waited here until he got back?" Histoire asked, "Just until he get home is all." The baker looked nervously under the table.

"Uh... have a seat, milady." he managed to get out, "it's no trouble, but I'm closing up soon, so you might want to head home in a bit."

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind," she said taking a seat. The baker continued on the cake, until eventually it was finished. He wrapped it up and placed it into a box and put it on a shelf under the counter right next to where Jayden was. Jayden grabbed the cake and put it into his inventory, then went to pull out a sum of money, but the baker stopped him and gave him a wink, signaling that this one was on him. Jayden gave him a smile as the baker silently pointed towards the back door when the book fairy wasn't looking. Jayden waited for Mr. Doh's signal as for when Histoire was distracted then ran to the back door.

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Running around to the front of the bakery, then slowing to a walk, he waved to Mr. Doh as if he hadn't been in there just a few minutes ago, to which the baker reciprocated and notified Histoire that her son was outside. Histoire came out the door moments later. "Sorry, Mom. I had to wait for the order." She smiled and rustled his hair leading him back inside.

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 **A/N: So for those of you who plan on sticking with me until I finish this story,**

 **A. I thank you and,**

 **B. Remember this chapter. It may show up later when you don't expect it.**


	4. Advancing the Plot

**A/N: Hey! Chapter Four finally! So this was a little delayed in coming out. I wanted to finish and release it yesterday, but due to... negligence on the part of a certain teacher of mine, I wound up having a headache due to noxious chemicals that I could do nothing about. Other than that there are only a few things I want to mention.  
** **First! Jayden makes quite a few jokes and references, so look for underlined text to pick up on jokes and references, but not all on them are underlined!  
** **Second! I did reference other fanfictions of the game that I'm currently reading. If you get the references, good for you! If not, then that's fine as well,** **not everyone reads the same stuff.  
** **Third! I was asked to make the chapters longer, so this one's about twice the length of Chapter One.  
that's all I wanted to say before the chapter, so Enjoy!**

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Histoire looked her son up and down. He was practically a new person. Granted ten years had passed, yes, but still, he was almost unrecognizable. Matter of fact, the only way she could tell the baby pictures were his were by the spectrum waving eyes. His eye colors still flowed beautifully and had become more vibrant as the years had passed. By far however, the most beautiful color was the blue. It stood, almost neon in vibrancy and seemed to make his eyes dance with splendor as the color passed. His hair had brightened up into a dark, dirty blonde kind of color. Too dark to really call dirty blonde, but too light to call brown. Being in Gamindustri, when he grew of age, he had to pick a permanent outfit. His new outfit consisted of a white hoodie with a picture of a blue heart over his own with neon blue, dark indigo, and majestic violet flames surrounding and bursting out of it. In contrast, he wore perfectly normal jeans for bottoms and grey and red sneaker looking things that were disguised sabatons for shoes.

Adorning his left wrist was a bracelet that had come in the bottom of the basket Jayden had arrived on the doorstep in. Jayden had found it himself a year or two back and put it on. He referred to it by the name of Eryn and occasionally, Histoire would hear him talking to someone when he should have been alone in his room. A female voice to be exact. The bracelet itself was a remarkable asset. from it, Jayden could spring a blue rope like beam with a yellow dot on the end. Thing beam could grab and pull things, or just deliver a powerful strike. In other words, it was very much a whip. As for weapons however, that was very much his only one. Even though Jayden possessed the necessary skill and dexterity to dual-wield, this was not something Histoire had seen before. She had seen IF dual wield qatars, she also knew a certain red CPU that occasionally would summon a second weapon and dual wield swords. This was bizarre though. One might even call it extreme. Never had Histoire ever seen this happen.

 **Jayden dual-wielded shields.**

Not just any normal kind of shields, they could reflect any kind of energy thrown at them, just like a certain star spangled captain, yet the perks didn't stop there. The shield on the right could be extended by the sides such that it became a ride-able object. She'd seen him using it to go sleigh riding before when they visited Lowee. The shield on his left arm, however, was more unique. It couldn't extend like its counterpart, but it could be thrown from his hand to bounce from enemy to enemy before it stopped. Further yet, it had a differently designed handle, such that Eryn's beam could grab it and pull it back. Third, this shield was made of a material that Histoire had not seen before. Jayden had gotten it after defeating a monster for an SSS guild Quest. Despite the odd method of obtaining, it seemed destined for his hand. He could wield both shields with extreme precision and ease, creating a method of defensive fighting focused mainly on magic and defending allies.

In layman's terms, he was one hell of a magic-attack-tank.

Jayden pushed his (we'll call it brown) hair back, slicking it into a style such that the tip of it came back around and lazily laid on his shoulder. He smiled as his mother approvingly did the same, brushing his hair slightly. It was funny. Though he was now sixteen, he still stood at four foot six. That was only one inch above the average height for people in Gamindustri, and boys were usually a bit taller. "Mother?" He started suddenly, Histoire almost jumped. "Are you okay?" She had zoned out to be honest, but she was indeed fine. She nodded to the boy.

"I just zoned out, that's all," she reassured him, "be frank with me, is that so unusual of me?" Jayden thought about it for a moment before giving his response.

"Not at all, mother. I was just curious." He said. Histoire was about to speak again when he continued. "But..." he started, "How can I be frank..." he made a face. She was certain she knew what came next.

" **When I'm Jayden?** "

Histoire sighed. For a normally serious and logical boy, he had moments where he seemed anything BUT serious. "Er... yes... Sorry about that..." she said. "Now it's time. Transform for me." Jayden stood there anti-climatically. Histoire raised an eyebrow waiting for him to transform.

"Mother..." he said after a time.

"Yes, Jayden? I'm waiting?" She responded, slightly confused.

"What do you mean transform?" He asked. Histoire was even more confused. This shouldn't be a thing he had to ask about.

"I mean activate HD... D..." Histoire trailed off in the middle of the abbreviation. "Well this is embarrassing..." Jayden raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I was just about to ask you to activate HDD." Histoire explained, "but I forgot. You're not a CPU!" Jayden frowned. Admittedly, this was a bit of a soft spot for him. He knew that there were a few guys who had HDD or something akin to it. He knew a boy who transformed into a CPU with Sage-colored hair. He also knew a boy who could transform and link up with different goddesses to gain more power. He even knew a guy who was straight up the CPU of his own nation that had collapsed a few years ago! What was his name? Gen... Jen... Genie Chris? No... that couldn't be right... Oh forget it! That didn't matter. He knew it was a rare occurrence, but still, this was annoying.

Jayden tried to picture what he would look like as a CPU. He imagined his hair changing to blue, maybe bright neon blue, that would be nice. An upgrade to his shields would be cool, maybe just aesthetically though, they functioned just fine as is. Maybe a cooler outfit... He wasn't sure. He had tried transforming before, but the situation had never been dire enough, nor had he been challenged enough to be pushed the point of desperation needed for the CPU's to have their first transformation. He had tried to see if Eryn was the same kind of watch that his friend Andy had, but alas, she wasn't the same kind. Jayden sighed. He wondered if he'd ever be anything other than just normal. Then, suddenly, he heard a crash outside. He grinned. "Back in a bit, Mother," He said, "I've been called for action!" He bounded out the door, seeing the rouse and tussle unfold outside. It was like some kind of ... trousle? He looked over at the offending monster. Of course, Arfoire would be the one commanding it around. It was some kind of skeletal beast with a gemstone adorning its forehead. "Huh," Jayden said to no one in particular. "If this is a skeleton, and I've noted were having a trousle... ah!" Jayden Gasped as he had flashbacks to playing the moral based game that he had been absolutely obsessed with for a month or two. He had even cosplayed as lost brother to the duo of skeletons in the game that he had named 'TN Roman.' "That makes this a 'Bonetrousle!' BRILLIANT!" He yelled as the catchy tune and the many remixes bounced into his head as he ran up and into the battlefield. 

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By the time he got their, all four goddesses, along with their candidates, had arrived and begun to... trousle... with this creature. Sweet merciful true goddess, he loved that word. He observed for a bit, trying to pick up on the creatures attack patterns. After a while he had them down. He landed in the middle of the fight and shield bashed a skeletal claw away from slashing at Nepgear. Then with a high-jump and a somersault through the air, he wound up above the creature, coming down towards it. When the creature responded with a swipe, which he knew it would, it came faster than was possible to see or act for, unless you knew it was coming. Jayden, of course knowing this was coming, bashed it away, opening up the creature's guard, then deployed his right shield, driving it into the creatures gemstone with his weight behind it, and flipping backwards off of it. The previous combatants had halted their assault, and now observed him as he partook in this bonetrousle.

He dodged a claw, then threw his shield. It bounced around from leg to leg, knocking them away from the creature and falling to the ground. Jayden used the beam to first retrieve his shield, then one of the three leg bones and brought it up over his head. "You know, some people might find this humerus." He said as he slammed said bone over the creature's head. It lay dazed from the impact. He then jumped around to the back of the creature, grabbed it by the tail and swung it around a few times, throwing it back into Gamindustri graveyard, taking care not to kill it in the process. The song still bounced in his head. He smiled. That was easy! He then turned to Arfoire. "Ha ha!" He exclaimed heroically, **" It is I! The great and mighty Papyru-** _wait_..." That was the wrong line. "Jayden! That's what I said!" He corrected himself quickly. That was almost embarrassing, "Weren't expecting me, Were you, you wicked witch, Arfoire?" As much as he was playing the Hero card, he sure didn't look like one in his hoodie, even if he was packing two rather large shields and a magic bracelet. Arfoire grinned.

"Actually," She snickered evilly. "You're exactly who I wanted to see." She held out a crystal which let off a blinding flash. Jayden was looking directly at the crystal when this happened. "That should hold you for a decade if I do say so myself!" Jayden looked around, then at the witch, then around himself again. Nothing had changed. Or had it? He couldn't remember. He looked blankly at the witch.

"Beg pardon..." He said, somewhat shyly. "What are you talking about?" She laughed at him. Well that was just rude. Jayden wasn't sure just who this witch was, but he knew she had a bad attitude that he was not in anyway fond of. He frowned. "It's a simple question, can you not answer it?"

She glared at him. "Are you calling me stupid?!" She barked.

"No," he said simply, "you said it not me." Her expression changed from amusement to anger, escalating from 1 to 500 very quickly. She lashed out and launched a rather large ball of fire at him. Jayden instinctively dropped into a combative stance and brought his right shield up, extending the sides and bashing the fireball back at its creator. For a few minutes they exchanged attacks, the witch casting spells and the boy reflecting, dodging, and slinging his own spells back at her. It didn't take long to whittle away first at her guard, then her health until she was lingering in the red. She scoffed.

"Fine. If you'll still be an annoyance while you're here, then I'll send you somewhere else!" She launched a spell at him, this one reminiscent of a black hole. He couldn't block this one. It was too late to move. Jayden closed his eyes as the spell enveloped him. 

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When Jayden opened up his eyes, he was falling. The ground was several miles from him at the moment. He rolled his body, moving into a diving position, approaching the ground very quickly until he got about 50 miles from the ground. He spread his arms and maneuvered through the sky, trying to find somewhere to land. A girl appeared before him, floating. "Jayden! This way!" Questions later, action now. He moved through the sky as if he were in a gliding suit. The girl eventually flew ahead of him and pointed downwards. He looked to where she was pointing and saw a pond of water. He positioned himself properly and aimed himself downwards, shooting into the crystal clear water like a bullet.

He resurfaced, spitting out some water. He pulled himself onto dry land and looked around. The sky was smoggy and black. There were factories everywhere. Jayden was confused. He didn't know where he was, and where was that girl? Who was that girl? Suddenly she appeared before him again. "That was close!" she exclaimed. "And I'm so glad your alright!" and with that, she threw her arms around the confused, and somehow now completely dry, boy in front of her.

"Er..." It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the attention seeing as it was positive, but he was confused nonetheless. "Why are you hugging me?" she undid her embrace, smiling brightly at him. "So where are we?" The girl looked around, then back at Jayden and shrugged. "Fair enough, what are we doing here?" She shrugged again. "Alright then, who are you?"

"It's me!" she said simply. "Eryn!" Jayden blinked once or twice. He looked at the bracelet on his wrist. He didn't remember it having a girl pop out of it and talk to him. To be fair, he didn't remember much at all, but this was a little jarring. "It's okay," she reassured him, "That witch erased most of both our memories." she explained. "Truth be told, I only remember you and your name."

"Well in that case, I apologize for not remembering yours." he responded. She followed up inquiring as to what he DID remember. "Not much." He said bluntly. "Just my name really." he heaved a sigh and started walking, "C'mon then." He said, "might as well head into town and see if we can figure anything out." She nodded and floated behind him. She didn't really walk, more of just glided along. Jayden took the time while they were walking to observe the girl. She was basically wearing the same thing he was, right down the the bracelet on the left arm. He guessed that simply came with her being his partner, watch, person.

With a smile and a glimmer of hope, Jayden walked into town with his companion. The rest would have to wait until tomorrow.

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 **Hey! That went pretty well! I think...**

 **Nonetheless, Songs include:**

 **During the Skeletal Battle: Bonetrousle by Toby Fox**

 **During the Magic Fight with Arfoire: Spear of Justice by Toby Fox**

 **Imagining these scenes while listening to these songs fills me with both Determination and Joy.**

 **I hope you enjoyed.**


	5. Ups and Downs

**A/N: WOW... that took much longer than it should have, huh? So, I know I'm a day late and a dollar short with this chapter, maybe more of a week or two late and a couple paragraphs short, but you get the point. The reason for that is because I decided to plan out some of the next events that were going to happen, and, if you're reading this in post, this story used to be called the pacifist. This chapter and later events made me decided to change it to P radox. I've also included to throw you a heads up as to things that may come later. For those of you who don't read this, don't worry I'll remind you.  
**

 **AO: AO's or alternative options are chapters where something else could have happened, for example, if Jayden had not remembered his Mother's birthday? Or maybe if Jayden landed in a different nation? I'll leave most AO's to one chapter, leaving you to think about it.**

 **SB: SB's or secret bosses are chapters that contain things that aren't necessarily from Neptunia. They are not optional chapters by any means, but they may have something you might not pick up on at first. Or maybe you will, I'm the uncultured one here.**

 **Finally! PSB: PSB will be placed at the beginning of any chapter in which a new paradox starts. A Paradoxical Sequence Break if you will. I'll have Jayden explain it later. Much later. If I decide to use this idea...**

 **All of these are still just Ideas... Anyway, I've kept you waiting too long already, let's get on with the chapter.**

* * *

Jayden dragged himself into the factory. He really didn't feel like working today, but he hadn't much of a choice. If he didn't get this paycheck, there was no way he'd be able to get the payment in for the gemstone he needed by the end of the day. He needed the gemstone in order to make a pickax in order to mine a specific type of magic ore he'd found, in order to make another pickax, in order to mine another certain ore he'd found, in order to make himself a weapon so he'd be able to start doing guild quests. Not just any weapon would do either. He needed something that would legitimately withstand the force he put behind every strike. Upon finding himself in this dimension, he didn't have any money and _Eryn said that he'd originally had two shields (Which he remembered) but, she'd only been able to hold onto the one he usually carried on his left._ So, needless to say, he needed to start somewhere. The Passe factory would do just fine for such a position. As he toiled away, banging at the piece of metal before him, shaping this one into a bowl, the next one into a plate, then a shield, then a blade, then a pipe of some sort, he thought to himself what he would have to do after this. Chian had promised him an opportunity to make the money he needed, but he didn't know what she needed yet. He grabbed another piece of metal and bashed the edges until he had a wire which he coiled several times and added bits, creating a barbed wire. He sighed. He'd gotten maybe two hours of sleep within the four days he'd been here. It was enough to keep him going, but only just barely.

Jayden worked for about three hours, maybe four, before Chian came in to take him somewhere else. Now that Jayden was in this room, he knew he was really earning that money. He was working with chemicals, creating different elements, testing molecular bonds, making potions, and strengthening things that had already been made. At the end of the hour, Chian gave him much more money than he had asked for to make up for it, but he was still pissy about it for the rest of the day. Jayden's hand went to his forehead. His head was pounding from the noises of the factory and the insufferable fumes of the chemicals he'd been working with that morning. His hands and most of his arms were scarred and burned. Despite all of it, Jayden merely frowned. Now where was that shop? He couldn't remember the way. Luckily for him, Eryn did remember. As they eventually found the shop, he came in to see someone arguing with the shopkeeper about by the slab of gemstone Jayden wanted. Jayden was glad to see that the keeper hadn't gone back on his promise of keeping it for him. He dropped the money on the counter and the merchant hauled the giant stone over to him. Jayden stashed it in his inventory, the weight hardly bothering him at all. The haggler from before stood before the door, attempting to buy, swipe, or in any other means obtain the gemstone from Jayden. Jayden refused to pay the man any mind, that is until the man pulled out a gun. Eryn gasped and Jayden protectively stepped in front of her. Then, without waiting for the man to spit out some cliched movie line, Jayden gave him what he wanted, just not in the way he'd expected. Jayden took the gem from his inventory and hurled it at the man at something like Mach 2, breaking the man's ribs.

After retrieving his gemstone and calling an ambulance, Jayden proceeded back to the inn he'd been staying at. He'd have to make the pickax tomorrow because of having to deal with the guy from earlier. What a pain... Jayden thought. One more day wasted with minimal funding...

* * *

As daylight pierced the room, Jayden was already up. Eryn was here and there, getting various things done, either packing things up or checking on Jayden. The boy in question was making breakfast for the two of them. Seeing as today would be the day he permanently found a home rather than just staying in the Inn, he wanted to have a good breakfast and make sure that the both of them would have enough food to make it until lunch under the heavy workload.

When the two reconvened, Jayden had breakfast ready and lunches packed, while Eryn had their belongings neatly organized into boxes to put in their inventories. It was rather helpful that Eryn was not just a familiar and had an inventory of her own. Otherwise this process would have been much more painful and tedious.

It is noteworthy that they had figured out where they were. They were in Lastation, one of four nations on the planet of Gamindustri. Jayden had gone out and bought a newspaper to see if there was anything on what happened after the witch had sent him off. He was concerned for how the people would have fared against her magic. Jayden had only just held up himself. When he saw the date however, he got confused. He remembered it being sometime around spring of a certain year when he left. The paper he read however, noted it to be at least a few hundred years before hand. He tried to remember what he was doing when the witch had ambushed him. He wasn't even sure who he was or what he used to be like. He had a mouthful of a pancake which he had filled with syrup. Yes, he put syrup on the inside of the pancake. Then he had a bite of egg and bacon to go with it. He was enjoying his breakfast at least. He didn't mean to toot his own horn but, he'd done a damn good job with it. By the looks of it, Eryn was enjoying it too. Jayden smiled at the thought.

It was funny. He didn't remember her name, but he remembered her face after a while and remembered that he was very fond of her. Not romantically by any means, but almost as a sort of partner. Two wasn't great company, but just being alone was even worse. Yet with Eryn, he never truly felt alone as she was literally always there whenever he needed her. He was glad to have someone like her. She kept him from panicking even though he was sent to the past and an amnesiac. It was sad to think he had lost the memories of what had happened before, but somehow getting to make new memories of an adventure with a friend like her made him feel much better.

Today had only just started and it was already looking better than yesterday.

* * *

He had been hoping. He really tried to tell himself that today was going to be a good day, but somehow, the world had simply proven him wrong in any way possible. After having fallen down the stairs directly after, "Today had only just started and it was already looking better than yesterday." things had only spiraled downwards in a kind of spiral of shame and sadness.

He had been "released from duty" in Chian's Factory, they had found someone who could do things cheaper than he could. This was basically a slightly nicer way of saying he had been fired. He had literally only worked there for two days and he was already fired.

Browsing the guild quests only rewarded him with low paying fetch quests, most of which were for items he already had. Furthermore, the one exciting looking quest turned out to be absolute rubbish. It had ordered him to go track down a monster and get rid of it, then bring back the item it dropped. Well the monster was an absolute pain to fight having extreme defense and magic resistance with only a meager amount of any firepower itself. After a grueling four hours, the monster dropped nothing. NOTHING... Naturally, the issuer of the quest had no proof that he killed the monster and the quest was taken down, but Jayden was not given any kind of reward. To make matters worse, Eryn was busy looking for houses, so he couldn't even spend time with her while doing all of this. The day was two thirds of the way over by this point and he had nothing to show for it.

Oh and the forge he needed to make himself the first pickax was under maintenance, so even if he ignored all the side-quests, he couldn't even advance the plot. Defeated, he trudged out into the forest and lay slumped against a tree, petting a red dogoo, telling it his troubles. He sighed.

"If only everyone was as good a listener as your are my ruby coloured, gel friend," he wasn't sure if the dogoo actually understood any of this, but nonetheless, it was listening very closely and not interrupting him at all. "I should give you a name. Do you have one already?" The dogoo looked up at him, a slightly annoyed look on its face. Jayden understood immediately. "Yeah, you're right, everybody and their uncle has a pet dogoo in the Neptunia FanFiction section." He said, ignoring the wall that typically came after the third one. "If I were to adopt you at this point, I think they'd call me cliched." The dogoo looked up at him again, this time with one eyebrow raised. "Well no, It's not cliched to break the fourth wall in a Neptunia fic because at this point we're kind of expected to. Matter of fact, I'd be more concerned if Tumis24 HADN'T scripted me to break the wall here and there." He looked down and the slime dog in his lap. "I still want a name for you though. I can't just keep calling you the red dogoo." The red dogoo licked his face. He tried to think of a name for it. "Adrien?" The dogoo shook its head, or rather its face, indicating a 'no' response. "Does Cameron work?" the dogoo shook its face again. "How about Chris?" The dogoo gave him a look. "Oh you're a girl... Sorry! I couldn't tell!" He tried to think about a name for a red female dogoo. Something that might suit it particularly well, maybe even slightly jokey. "How about, Cherry?" The dogoo now wagged its 'tail' and licked his face, the newly named Cherry approving of the name. Jayden sat there, wondering if this was a good thing or a bad thing. He couldn't even call the dogoo his friend because it didn't seem convenient to bring it along, so he'd only succeeded in making someone he'd have to leave behind. The thought only served to further darken his day. He checked his phone, waiting for the message from Eryn that would tell him where she was. He wanted to see her again so badly. He knew she was okay, he wasn't concerned, yet the fact that she was the only person he knew, the only person who cared about him, made him desperately want to always be by her. He shook his head slightly, reminding himself that he indeed did NOT romantically love Eryn, she was his best, and PURELY platonic friend. He kept pushing this through his head. He figured that if he kept telling himself that he might one day believe it. He heaved a sigh and leaned back against the tree. What would brighten his day right now? He wanted to be with Eryn, that came first. He waited only for a few more minutes before his phone went off. He seized the device and furiously read through the text. After he had confirmed it was Eryn and noted her location, he placed Cherry on the ground, removing the pup from his lap, and headed off, happy to finally reconvene with his Companion. 

* * *

When he arrived, Eryn was waiting on the front porch, leaning back into a rocking chair and playing a game on a device that Jayden had bought her a day or two ago. If he remembered correctly the device was called a PP, otherwise known as a Papyrus Player. The cartridges were small crystal sticks, that kind of looked like USBs, that were called Papyrusi. One single papyrus could hold enough data to fill a Skyscraper with 2D, minute 1s and 0s. The game Eryn had on the PP at the moment was called Cryo-Pyrus and had over a month's worth of hours play time on it without considering replay value. He had bought her three games with it, Cryo-Pyrus, WonderTail, and Tyo-shock Limitless. The controls consisted of six buttons, on for all the actions of Jumping, meleeing, using a heal or reloading, switching weapons in either direction, and opening a pause menu. The game also featured two bumper buttons where your pointer fingers would wind up, one for a primary fire and the other for interaction or secondary. As well as those, it featured a control pad for movement and a touch screen to aim with. If you didn't like the touch pad there was also a secondary analog pad. The device also had a mic on it and featured moments where the played could talk to either type or to interact with characters in-game. The company behind this brilliant game device was none other than the Lastation geniuses at Tobias Vulpes. Jayden was more of a PC gamer himself, preferring to play games like Double Death 2 and Jmod. The laptop had had with him was an extel laptop with bits of alientek and TekZ components here and there complete with a Megasoft solid state hard drive that made the computer not only boot up faster than it shut down, but also made it run smoothly and 480 frames per second, even if he was playing with 4320 pixel graphics. It made Jayden happy to see how technology advanced, and to watch the companies compete and create a successful market, all the while providing quality entertainment for the public filled him with determination. Not that he needed it at the moment. Then, Jayden learned something very important. He was very good at going on tangents. After all, only the first part of the first sentence of this, now very long, and still growing, paragraph actually had anything to do with the story. Jayden could make an argument that he was trying to provide exposition, but by this point, his argument had become a naked banana.

 **It simply lacked a peel.**

Jayden wondered how many people would understand that joke the first time they read it. He could see a lot of people glossing over the clever wordplay the first time they read it. Nevertheless, Jayden now approached the porch. Eryn saw him coming up and put away her game, then threw herself upon him. With her arms around him, she gave him a warm welcome to their new house. "Welcome home, Jayden!" She said, her eyes sparkling with joy."I missed you today, and I'm really glad you're here now." With that, she gave him a quick, but fully affectionate, kiss on his his cheek. Jayden had mastered the amazing art of stone-facing and epic deadpanning, yet still he gently blushed on the outside. For those of you who did not understand the previous sentence: while Jayden only subtly showed his joy externally, every last dopamine, joy, happiness, and bliss neuron in his brain had overloaded and exploded, leaving him standing there completely silent and gently blushing for several seconds. In case that was also an inadequate summary: Jayden was really fucking happy. There aren't many other ways of putting it.

After regaining functionality, Jayden returned the embrace and for a while they stood there, happily wrapped around each other. After separating, Eryn showed him two particularly interesting articles in the newspaper. The first was the steady decline of Planeptune's shares. It had depleted below even a measly one percent and the CPU, Purple Heart, had fallen ill. People had more or less accepted that Neptune was going to die and there wasn't much to be done about it. Most of the citizens had migrated to other nations. Less than half the population had remained. Jayden looked at Eryn, and understanding passed between them. A day or two ago, the rough outline of what was supposed to happen had popped into his head. Purple Heart's death was not part of the plan. Tomorrow, they would go to Planeptune and do something about that. The second, and possibly more appealing article detailed how there was a star shower going on tonight, just twelve minutes from that moment, where stars would rain down from the sky creating a shower of fire and burning particles. Citizens were urged to stay away due to possible safety hazards, and the Basilicom was not responsible for any individuals who received injuries due to this phenomenon. With another look of silent understanding, Jayden turned and dropped the newspaper with Eryn right behind him and together they rushed off to see the Raining stars. 

* * *

As they sat and watched the stars fall, Jayden tried to tell himself that this made up for having such a horrid day before all this, yet, he couldn't help but feel that it didn't. What would? He had achieved step one in reuniting with Eryn, what was step two? Step two was clear as he watched the balls of fire rain down from the sky into the marsh. "Hey, Eryn." Jayden said, a smile on his face. She turned to him with a similar expression, almost predicting what came next. "I'm gonna catch one." She giggled and stood up beside him, helping him to his feet. Jayden got into a running position and took off. One of the many pieces of Evidence that marked Jayden's inhuman properties was his ability to run on par with sound. He wasn't quite faster than it, but his stamina was practically unending and his speed was by far, unparalleled among humans. He jumped over pools of water, most stars simply collapsed into them and went out. Then, he saw something special. One particular star hit the ground and sat there for a moment before the ground burst open underneath it and black flames shot up into the star. The two melded together, forming a ball of Black and blue fire that shot back into the sky. As soon as he saw it, Jayden knew that was the one he was going to catch.

Eryn was right beside him, flying at his side as he ran and pinpointed where the star was going to land. He rushed forward, diving at the very last moment and caught the thing just before it hit a pool of water. In his hand was a large orb of black flames which shifted to blue up towards the top. It took up his entire hand and was about the size of a beach ball. He looked at it curiously. There were two patches of dark blue right next to each other and a strip of dark violet flames beneath it. It was kind of funny, the more he looked at it, the more it looked like a face. The blue spots of flame even narrowed and widened as if the face were blinking.

"Well, are you just gonna lay on the floor holding me, or are you gonna stand up?" The Blue patch seemed to move in a manner akin to a mouth as it spoke. Jayden's eyes went wide. The mouth sprang open, laughing, "Oh, I wish you could see your face right now! It makes such a short life worth living, you know?" Jayden quickly got to his feet, holding the thing in front of him in both hands.

"What do you mean such a short life?" he asked the creature before him. He had only just met it, he didn't want to have to toss it away already! "I've only just met you. Don't tell me I already make you want to jump into the water?" He said to it.

"Nah, buddy, I'd thank you for saving me from it but," The thing flickered in Jayden's hands, "I'm a fire demon. Even if you saved me just now, I've got ten minutes tops before I go out." Jayden had read about this before. In the different nations, different elements persisted more strongly than others. This could result in demons and spirits of said elements living in that area. Running into one of them was extremely rare however. If acted upon quickly, it was possible to save them from their quick deaths at the hands of other elements in nature with such an opportunity.

"What say you to a deal?" Jayden asked the fireball. It perked up and looked at him, its eyes sparking with interest. "You live as long as I do in return for something from you." He told it.

"Sure!" It sparked, "You can tap into my magic whenever you need if I'm gonna be your buddy!" With that, the demon hopped up and swirled around his face for a second. Red markings appeared up Jayden's right arm, the demon landing on his shoulder. "I am demon 12-21-3-9-6-5-18! My ID number is 666, and you may name me whatever you want! We have formed a pact now!" Jayden though about it for a moment. As he though about those numbers and the alphabet...

"How's Lucifer work for you?" The demon's eyes sparkled as it rolled around in the air. "Great. I suppose having a buddy like you could come in handy." Then he thought of something else. "I thought I needed to provide something for you to burn?" The demon shook its head, or rather it's entire body.

"Nah, not with this kind of bond." it said nonchalantly, "with this one I can fly around and stuff. That kind of thing only happens if you gave me your heart to hang onto. I imagine that would be a stronger bond, but you have your other uses for your heart I imagine."

"I mean, not particularly," Jayden joked, "but to be honest, I like to pretend I do." Lucifer gave a chuckle, a crackling sound like a small fire. Eryn looked at Lucifer, trying to decide whether or not she should do something about him. "Oh, this is Eryn, by the way." Jayden introduced Eryn to the newly appointed Lucifer. "Lukey here is gonna be helping us out from now on." The demon gave something akin to a smile, to which Eryn responded in kind. As the three headed off, back towards the house, Jayden couldn't stop smiling.

Through Ups and Downs, things would find their way.


	6. The Transformation

**A/N: I was working on this chapter while working on other things and realized that I'd gone slightly overboard. It's one on the longer chapters and I was actually going to make it longer but decided not to because I had other things to do. I also know that there are people like me and will often not stop until they've finished a chapter. Also, I wanted to include a few symbols in this chapter, but they just turned back into english, so... That's not working anytime soon. I'd have to upload a picture and do it that way.**

 **Also, I'm listening to Death by Glamour by Toby Fox and deciding whether or not I want to have a moment inspired by it yet. There are song inspired moments in this chapter by the way. I totally forgot if there were any in the last chapter so I just assumed that there weren't any... Sorry about that.**

 **Nonetheless, I'm accidentally stalling again! Enjoy the chapter. (Wow, my upload schedule is weird, isn't it?)**

* * *

They had arrived in Planeptune halfway through the day and had spent the other half of the day explaining to people that they were not Lastionese assassins sent to finish off Purple Heart. Lucifer didn't exactly help with that, his appearance alone being enough to requisite panic in the guards. Jayden eventually gave a shrug, "Look, buddy." He said to the head guard, "I'm going into Planeptune to help FIX your problem. Either you take my help for what it is, or you turn me away and doom the nation that you're so desperately trying to protect. What'll it be?" Luckily, this statement made the head guard see reason and by the end of the day, they were set up with a Planeptune house.

"Well this is pretty good," Lucifer sparked, "with a house in both nations, we'll have a place to stay no matter where we go. We just need to find houses in the other nations." Eryn nodded agreement.

"It can't hurt to be prepared right?" she half asked half said, "who knows? we might have a party to big to keep in a hotel one day." It was an interesting thought. Jayden's journey had only just begun. Getting back to his time would be an interesting journey, but at the same time, he wondered whether or not he would be able to. It didn't matter at the moment. He had Eryn and Lucifer to him. They were as much of a family to him as he could remember. He let out a contented sigh, leaning back onto the backboard of his bed, Lucifer settling in his lap. Jayden gave the little demon a small stroke over the top of its head, the demon releasing a noise that sounded something like a combination of a cat purring and a fire crackling. Eryn left and went to her bedroom across the hall. Today had seemed short, yet without really trying they had already made a decent amount of progress.

* * *

Jayden contemplated how he was going to start. There were many ways to raise shares in a nation, but most of them had already been tried. Even creating new tech, such as the Nepcast, had horridly failed. What could he do that DIDN'T fail miserably? He picked up a game console. It was purple and had letters etched into the side. Maybe he could make a new game? He wasn't great with programming. Maybe... Just maybe...

His thoughts were cut off by a blue spark landing in front of him. He had forgotten Lucifer was there. Maybe he could bounce some ideas off Lucifer. "Hey, Lukey-boy."

"Can we come up with a better nickname?" The demon immediately responded. "Not that I don't like Lucifer, Lucifer's great, but can we come up with better than Lukey?" Jayden had to think about that for a moment.

"What would I call you? I think Lucy's off the table by this point." The demon gave him a 'don't get me started' kind of look. If that was even possible. "Well Lu's not an option either, so..."

"How 'bout just Luke?"

 **Jayden facepalmed.**

He hadn't even thought of that. Through all the things he thought of, removing the 'Y' was not one of them. He looked at the demon and gave a nod. That'd do pretty well. Matter of fact it was better than any of the things he'd come up with. Suddenly, Jayden realized that he'd gone off on a tangent again. Seriously, he had to stop doing that.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way, help me think." he said, "what can we make that's gonna blow the minds of people everywhere and make them come here? Or at least change their shares?"

"How about we make a video game?" the demon asked. "People like video games, right?"

"Well yeah, they do," he responded, "but will that be enough?"

"How about a game console?"

"Again, great, but I don't know if that's gonna turn heads here."

"What about a defense system?"

Jayden stopped. "A defense system?" The demon nodded, "why a defense system?"

"Cuz of all the monsters, dingus." This was the first Jayden had heard of anything like this. He raised an eyebrow in question. "With the shares down and the goddess out of power, monsters occasionally come into town and no one stops them." Jayden thought about it.

"Maybe that's just something we could do separately." Jayden said finally. "reducing the number of monsters is an easy path to take to make Planeptune a better place to live. Something like that could easily make people come back." Lucifer gave a nod. Jayden stopped to think about where he would start. He turned back to his desk, a note there that was not there previously. It was covered in peculiar symbols. Jayden could make out what looked like a mailbox and a couple of pointing fingers and other things. He tried to decode it in his head, but was mostly unable to.

As he read, more symbols seemed to appear on the page.

Jayden couldn't read the symbols, he could only try to figure out what they could have meant. Even as he tried, he couldn't figure it out. He sighed and turned back to Lucifer. "Before we get started making this, though, we need a creators license."

* * *

The office where such a pass is obtained was closed. Curse his cliched luck. It was a long distance from the house, and as such, the three had taken the porter, otherwise a trolley/teleporting system, to get there. Even so, it had taken a half hour and Jayden had forgotten to charge his handheld PC. After starting back in the direction of the house, Jayden heard a distant rumble. A scream followed, one that he knew a little too well. He leaped up into the air without hesitating, without thinking, and slammed into the middle of the square. He faced a large building, completed with mosaic stained glass with violet designs. _Behind him was a small bakery, the scent of fresh pumpkin muffins just barely noticeable even in the street._ Jayden knew this area, but how?

 _Forget that!_ Jayden told himself, _There's time for that later! Right now, this big ugly's the main problem._ A dragon stood, clawing the regal building across from the bakery. Even if Jayden wasn't into worshiping the goddesses, tearing down a church was absolutely out of the question, even for a monster. Other people grounded their faiths in it, tearing it down would result in even more people losing hope and fleeing Planeptune. For the sake of the task at hand, Jayden could not let the church fall. Then, an even more pressing issue presented itself. The dragon took a swipe at something by its feet and Jayden heard the scream again. He grabbed the dragon's tail and began to swing it in a circle.  The whole thing reminded him a bit of Maero 128 and fighting the evil Browser... again, time and place. Jayden released the thing's tail flinging it into the air, sending it spiraling into the woods nearby. He'd have to follow it to fully finish it, else, it would just come back. First he turned to what the dragon had been swiping at.

A small girl sat on the ground, shivering. Jayden wasn't one to think that seeing as if he was a half a foot taller than her, it was a lot. She had blonde hair and a small white cap on her head. She sat beside a book, overturned and dirty on the ground. The book seemed to have almost been cleaved in half during the ordeal. He helped her up and made sure she was alright. For whatever reason, he wanted to protect this girl, almost more than he wanted to protect Eryn. Who was this? Was it his lover in his past life? Probably not, he wasn't very good at the whole romance thing. Eryn was the only female he'd ever really been friends with. Chian definitely did NOT count. Not only was she his boss, not his friend, but Jayden really didn't like her. She was too full of herself. She needed some competition. Wait...

 **Crap... He'd gone off on a tangent again.**

Jayden couldn't bring himself to speak to the girl, further than asking if she was okay. When she'd confirmed that, Jayden was about to leave when, "Wait! Here it comes again!" Jayden turned to the dragon, It roared and threw magic fireballs out, wreaking havoc on the town. Jayden once again sprang into the air and this time, he let loose with a barrage of magic water bolts. He was crap with water magic, but he wasn't aiming to do damage. With enough accuracy and effort, Jayden manage to extinguish the flames. Jayden looked up at the dragon. It was too high to reach. He looked over at Eryn and gave a nod. He sprang up again, slinging out his arm and grabbing onto the dragon's hook-tail with Eryn's Beam. He pulled himself toward it and brandished his shield. Despite being made for defense, he'd sharpened the edges. As he flew in Lucifer possessed the shield, the thing bursting into the signature black and blue flames. Jayden swung with all his might, leaving a huge gash across the beast's torso. He jumped up a second time to repeat the process and hopefully down the beast altogether, when the dragon let loose with more fire. This time however, it came in a beam. It spiraled towards Jayden, arcing Red, white, gold, and orange, blazing forward. Jayden didn't have time to react. If he was lucky, his stats would be enough to let him stick through it. He was bracing himself for the flames when all of a sudden, he was pushed aside.

As Jayden looked back, Eryn lay burned and hurt on the street, face down. He ran over to her and turned her onto her back. "Eryn!" He screamed in desperation. "Wake up!" He was panicking. "Don't die on me! I need you!" Her eyes flitted open and the girl from before came out. "Lucifer!" The demon turned to him, "Do me a favor and keep the son of a bitch busy until I can tear him apart." Lucifer nodded and morphed into a wolf with fur made of coursing black and blue flames. He and the Dragon began to exchange fire. He brought Eryn into the building, following the blonde girl and laid her onto a bed. She looked him in the eye.

"I'll take care of them. You just keep the dragon off us, Okay?" Jayden nodded, then turned back to Eryn.

"Hang in there, Eryn," He said. "I'll be back for you just as soon as I finish this thing off." With that he ran back outside.

* * *

When he got back, Lucifer was repeatedly punching the dragon in the face with a flaming paw. It was a combination of awesome and hilarious to watch, even if was doing hardly any damage due to the elemental similarity. He called out to the demon. Lucifer sprang back, resuming the fireball form. "Any ideas?" Lucifer shook his head. "Lovely. I'm gonna tear this bastard apart." He sprang up and grabbed the dragon who had only just taken back to the air and began to slash at this with his hands, knifes forming just before he actually hit the dragon. It was doing damage, but not enough to be satisfying. The dragon threw Jayden off and he landed, ready to tear into it again. He sprang up once more, getting ready to start throwing magic, when the dragon struck him down. It turned and tried to fly away, but Jayden was quickly on it, speeding after the beast, Lucifer just behind him.

Jayden ran through forests, faster than he'd ever moved before, light bounding along behind him, outlining where his hands and feet had been, as he ran, dodging fireballs and staying right under the dragon as he returned fire, crashing spells to fireballs, doing more damage than before. The dragon turned to spew another beam of fire, but Jayden launched into the air.

 **Crashing Lightning Fist!**

He slammed his hand into the dragon's face, knocking it back and doing a metric ton of damage. The dragon's health had been cut to half. It roared and spun towards Jayden. Jayden ran towards it in response. Right at the last moment, the dragon straightened out and cut Jayden through his torso, almost cleanly tearing him in half. Jayden hit the ground, coughing up blood. Lucifer rushed over, looking at the grim event before him. Lucifer had to think quickly. If he couldn't save Jayden it was the end of both of them. Full of determination, Lucifer dove into Jayden's body, flames licking his wounds closed and Lucifer poured all of his energy forth, sealing up Jayden's wounds. Flames burst forth as Jayden returned to his feet. With Lucifer's power within him, Jayden knew he could do it. Even through amnesia, he'd wanted to do this all his life. He looked at the dragon which was trying to figure out how tearing him in half had not worked.

"Alright... Dragon." He said to it, his tone was menacing. The dragon didn't understand what he was saying but was intimidated anyway. "I've got only two word for you know." He knew that this was different for guys than girls. But all the same, he knew what to do. **"Overdrive! Activate!"** Jayden threw both hands into the air and violently brought them to his sides, balled into fists, his arms behind him, his stance wide and balanced as power surged through his body.

 **In a radiant beam of light, Jayden transformed.**

His hair had become longer and pitch black, it reached to the middle of his back and was spiked rather than slick as it normally was. His eyes had flushed solid colors. His right eye was red with a large blue claw design in the middle. His other eye had become black with a small white dot right in the center. His clothing was mainly the same, save for his upper body. His hoodie was the blue Heart design with surging flames, except now the heart was actually there with bright Black, blue, and violet flames gushing forth. His undershirt had become white with the rest of the hoodie black as well. "I am Shadow Soul." He told the dragon. "And you... You are history!" Jayden rushed towards the dragon again, throwing his shield, now covered in blades and tore through it, punching, kicking and slashing through the dragon, passing right through it with every cut and strike. The dragon no longer stood a chance, Jayden was just too fast and strong as he repeatedly cut through the beast, pouring every last bit of strength into his blows. Not the slightest bit of mercy was on his mind as he continued, cutting away the dragon's health, piece by piece, cut by cut, merciless blow after merciless, godly powerful blow. Eventually the dragon had barely any health left. Jayden landed on the ground next to it. The dragon looked up at him, pain in its eyes almost as if to say, 'okay... I get it... Make it quick.' As merciless as the 'fight' was, forget everything else, by this point it was just mercy and a reservation of whatever honor either of them had. Jayden nodded to the dragon and the beast finally closed its eyes. Jayden stood straight up and brought his shield down on the creature's neck, severing its head from its body. The beast dissolved into dust, leaving behind a fat sack of credits and small gemstone. Jayden realized its color. This was a healstone.

* * *

Jayden landed in the square once more, reverting in a burst of blue and black pixels as Lucifer burst out and landed on his shoulder. People came up to make sure he was okay. He nodded. People applauded. Apparently someone had caught the fight on video and had uploaded it to MiTube and it had gone viral within the time he had gotten back to the nation square. People asked where he was from, how long he'd be staying, if he was here to replace Neptune. He patiently smiled and answered all questions with one answer. "I am Purple Heart's Royal Guardsman, sent by her to vanquish the dragon. Even if I look like a CPU, I am not. If you would place your faith in me, place it within Purple Heart. Should she perish, I will have no job to feed my family, I will have no home to live in.

 **I will have no one to place my faith in.**

I know you all know what that feels like. Together, we can pull Planeptune back together though! With who ever is left and who ever comes back. Together, we will come back from what the other nations belief is our doom!" Jayden noted someone filming him once more. He turned to the camera, raising a finger and pointing at it. "Hear me, world! This is not our end! This is the beginning of our Resurgence!" He balled his hand into a fist and raised it to the camera. "We will live on!" He raised his fist to the sky and people did likewise, cheering as they did so.

* * *

Jayden had already worked out that it wasn't a church, it was the basilicom. Also, most of his prior speech was absolute garbage that he'd just made girl inside introduced herself as a basilicom worker. She had started working their shortly before the share crash. She was the only Basilicom employee left. His speech had made the shares jump up to fourteen percent however, not an overwhelming number, it was right about where it was before the whole thing happened, but the number was still growing. Even now, it had reached fifteen. The girl came up to Jayden a smile on her face, but Jayden didn't care. He only had one thing one his mind. "How is she?"

The girl's expression gave way to confusion, "How is who?" she asked. Jayden raised an eyebrow at her. Suddenly her face gave way to recollection. "Oh! Uh, she recovered really well, maybe just a few burns here and there." Jayden heaved a sigh of relief. The weight had been taken off of his chest. He wondered why she had reacted so strangely to his question, but brushed the thought aside. He went into the room where Eryn lay. He shattered the healstone over her her eyes opened and set on him. Both of them smiled.

There was a lot to fill her in on.

* * *

 **So yeah, the girl in the basilicom is indeed Histoire. Jayden just doesn't recognize her. Also, keep a watch for things I don't necessarily say, but imply. I intend to keep people guessing until the end, it makes it more fun for both the author and the reader alike.**

 **Also, the whole symbol thing failed, so here's a link to what the note looked like:**

 **tomscar.**

 **deviantart.**

 **com/art/Jayden-s-First-note-580621554**

 **I had to cut it to pieces to make sure it'd work. If you copy the link exactly into your URL, it's a picture of the note.**

 **Also, The dragon fight right when Jayden starts to run after it is inspired by Chaoz Airflow by ParagonX9**

 **Happy Holidays, Friends!**


	7. Rain

**A/N: So this chapter is not as exciting as the other chapters, it's mainly buildup for when I'm going to blow everyone's mind in a few chapters. Nonetheless, I hope you're all having a wonderful day. I have nothing else to say, so let's just get to the chapter.**

* * *

Jayden had been marching through the rain for thirty minutes now. He had been approved to become a producer in Planeptune. Seeing as the nation was dying, one might think that they'd be desperate for new producers and this process would be a quick and easy one. On the contrary, the process had taken three hours; just enough to take up the rest of the time the porter was open. Rain had picked up during the meeting, and now Jayden, Eryn, and Lucifer slogged through the rain, losing more and more stamina as the seconds past.

Jayden was keeping his opinion to himself; he wasn't much for rain. He could remember a time when he liked rain, but now he only saw it as a burden. His clothes were soaked and much heavier as a result. He carried the prototype product, which was heavy itself, not to mention in was slung over his back, leading to raindrops catching the top of the bag it was in and sliding down onto his back. Through all of it, he managed to keep it to himself. He deadpanned and kept his face cold as stone, making sure not to show how tired and upset he was. He knew it wouldn't help the other two. He looked over his shoulder.

The little ball of black and blue flames was floating lazily just behind his left arm. It wasn't hard to see that he was miserable. Fortunately, he wasn't going to be put out by the rain, due to his pact with Jayden, but all the same, fire and water simply do not get along. As they went, occasionally Lucifer would shake himself like a puppy, trying in vain to get the water off himself as more fell onto him. Jayden couldn't help but smile, it was kind of funny to watch.

Finally he turned to Eryn, and his smile vanished just a suddenly as it had shown up. She was holding her arms, hugging herself, and shivering violently. Jayden was extremely concerned, she had been acting strange lately. The beam that extended from his bracelet had grown weaker. She had been getting tired much easily. Most of all, she had been much more attentive to him than normal. He was afraid of what was happening to her. He walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey," he said, his voice making her jump. "You alright?" His voice was full of concern.

"Y-yeah…" she stuttered out, "just a bit cold is all." Jayden took off his jacket and, without asking whether or not she wanted it, he wrapped it around her shoulders. It was wet, but it would hold in heat at the very least. "W-w-wwhat about you?" she asked, "Aren't you cold?" Jayden shook his head. He was more concerned about her than himself. They kept walking. 

* * *

After about an hour, and getting a quarter of the way home, Eryn suddenly faltered. Her knees buckled and she fell, almost completely hitting the ground. Jayden moved quickly and caught her, not wasting any time and scooping her up, carrying her, one arm under the back of her knees, and the other under her back, bridal style. He continued walking, Eryn too tired to make an attempt at arguing. He pushed forward, Lucifer close behind. It was dark, and getting darker, fog setting in.

After another hour or so, Jayden checked on Eryn. He placed his own head against her forehead, not picking up on a temperature. He gave her a very light shake. "You hanging in there?" She didn't respond. He ran a magic pulse through her body, checking her vitals. They were all there. He realized she was unconscious and brutally cold. She was practically freezing. Reaching the halfway point and realizing that he needed to keep his companion from going from bad to worse filled him with determination.

He pressed forward faster than before, Lucifer doubling up and keeping behind him. It was getting dark and fogged up to the point where just being able to see was an effort. The rain had also picked up. It seemed nature was fighting every last attempt of theirs to get home. Jayden doubled his efforts again, pushing back. "Lucifer!" The demon now lead the way, blue flames bursting forth and lighting the way. Torrents of rain crashed down, forcing him back. Waiting for the right moment, Jayden planted his feet into a wide stance, holding his ground. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, he sprang forward and burst through the crashing water, not allowing the raging element to impede his progress any further. He practically shoved his way through the blasting torrents, forcing back with incredible strength.

Finally he reached the house, even so, victory was short lived as the door was surrounded by a veil of water. Jayden reached for the knob, but the water literally bit his hand as he touched it. "Shit!" He recoiled, barely managing not to drop Eryn in the process. He couldn't get rid of this kind of seal on his own, he'd need some like... "Hey Lucifer! Can you get the door?" The Fireball reared back and began blasting flames over the door, symbols showing up, shattering and clashing with each other as the demon removed the Water Seal. Jayden realized that this wasn't happening anytime soon as long as Lucifer had water crashing down on him like that. Shifting Eryn so he could hold her in one arm, he blasted flames out towards the sky with his free hand, creating a veil of fire over them. The flames shifted icy blue and dark green, immediately evaporating any rain that tried to come down on them. Suddenly, Lucifer shivered. Jayden could feel it too.

They weren't alone.

Jayden's breathing quickened slightly, he wasn't very good with being snuck up on. In all honesty, Jayden was absolutely panicking. If Lucifer couldn't get that seal off in time, Eryn would probably need extreme help to have the slightest chance of living through this, and whatever was out there... He didn't want to think about it. All the same, the thought of what _could_ be out there was very efficiently destroying his focus. Then, he heard the door click open. As soon as the door was open wide enough to walk through, Jayden thanked the true goddess for his hyper sensitive ears. He heard it jump behind them. He brought his hand down towards it, scorching the ground and burning the pavement. He was bordering on hyperventilating. He had missed whatever it was. He quickly got Eryn inside, pulled Lucifer in behind him and slammed the door shut. He looked over at Lucifer, calmly floating and singing water droplets off of himself. He picked up Eryn and brought her over to the couch. "You felt it too, right?" Lucifer asked. "Let me take care of her," he said, "that THING is still out there, wreaking havoc. Take that asshole down a notch so we don't gotta worry about it anymore, will ya?" Jayden nodded. For the sake of anyone who was passing by, or anyone that thing would try to prey on, Jayden was ready to knock this bastard out of this mortal coil. He just needed to get THAT... 

* * *

Jayden stepped out of the house once more, the rain still pounding down. He braced himself for action, this was going to be interesting. The beast leaped from its hiding spot, roaring and ejecting missiles of water everywhere. Jayden nimbly dodged every last missile and claw before landing on his feet a distance up the street. Jayden slightly flexed his left arm, checking the plating up and down his sleeves. He had plating on that made his arms and legs look mechanical, extra plating around his chest and glowing lights around the center of his torso, and lastly, a heavy gear helmet atop his head. He touched two fingers to the side of his helmet and activated the mental signature on the devices on his body. Glowing lights flashed outwards as a beam of light struck down onto him. When the light died down, Jayden stood decked out in a heavy mech suit with black, blue and grey plating. The cracked his knuckles, letting his opponent know, in the most stereotypical way possible, that he was ready to rock and roll. Hydraulics were placed in his legs and arms, further extending upon the power of his kicks and punches, as well as extending his jump height. As well as the hydraulics, guns extended from his forearms, firing magicka bullets rather than the normal kind. Due to his damn near infinite stamina, magicka bullets were easier to make than normal bullets were to acquire. "You're the cause of all this rain, aren't you? Matter of fact, I'd be willing to bet you're responsible for Neptune falling ill too, aren't you?" The beast growled, the actually spoke.

"Clever thing, aren't you?" the voice was clearly feminine, but not at all familiar, "though I have to ask, who is this Neptune you speak of?" Jayden raised an eyebrow.

"Lady Purple heart? That Neptune?" The beast cocked its head to the side.

"I think you mean Saturn, fool. Killing you will be easier than I thought if you're THAT stupid." The beast licked its lips, then almost seemed to sigh, "I had hoped you would be a more worthy opponent though." Jayden had to stop and think. Yeah, where the hell did he pull the name Neptune from? Who was Neptune? So Saturn was the reigning CPU huh? Maybe Neptune was someone he'd known before he got his memories erased! Wait... _This song and dance seems a little too familiar..._ fuck.

He'd gone on a tangent. Again... TRUE GODDESS DA-

Oop, that's gonna have to wait, the thing over there is waiting. Jayden regained his footing, mentally of course, then resumed talking to the thing before him. "So what are you exactly?" he asked, "I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like you. The creature stood, claws brandished on four padded paws, menacingly snarling, much like a wolf, but this beast was covered in scales, was green, could make it rain like there would be no tomorrow, had the CPU's shares deteriorating faster than anyone knew what to do about, and last of all, it could talk. Jayden had never seen this kind of monster or animal before, and that was saying something because he had... oh wait. Amnesia. Nevermind, maybe this was a common thing after all. He still wanted to know what it was though, it was interesting. He looked it up and down once more. "Are you a wolf or..." actually, he had seen this before... He thought back to when the dragon had assaulted the Basilicom just the other day... 'Lucifer nodded and morphed into a wolf with fur made of coursing black and blue flames. He and the Dragon began to exchange fire.' Wait so... "Are you a spirit then?"

The scaled wolf laughed in a way more humane than would have been expected. Then again, its voice was the same way. "There you go. You catch on quick when you're not being an idiot." Jayden returned a chuckle of his own.

"I suppose that could be said for most people. The only problem is the the whole 'not being an idiot' thing doesn't apply to most of those people," Jayden paused, "So what's with trying to drain away Saturn's shares?" He asked it. "I can't think of anything she's done to you."

"Saturn's diminishing shares are not my doing." it said, "I have only watched as it happened. Bringing her death is no doing of mine, I simply refuse to help." Jayden understood that a little too well.

"That's fair enough," he said. "You know, the more I talk to you, the less I really want to fight you, or is that one of your powers?" That could be a thing. Seduction and temptation monsters were a little too real. Jayden was ready for a fight, but he'd only brought the suit to show the creature he had it. He didn't want to use it if he didn't have too. The wolf pulled back slightly, sitting upwards and cocking its head to the side again.

"It is strange," it started, "I feel the same way. This is not one of my powers, nor is it normal for me to not hunt down such a worthy opponent. There is something different about you. Something about you that makes me like me..." the scaly wolf trailed off. Jayden tried to think. What made him like the- oh duh. Jayden engulfed his arm in black and blue flames, then held it up for the wolf to see. "Ah. So you are not a human then, you are a mirror synth mimicking a spirit. I would call this dishonored, but its easy to see that you do this flawlessly, even without connection to a demon." Jayden paused. He DID have a connection to a demon. But... Come to think of it... wasn't Lucifer busy healing Eryn at the moment? He wasn't even trying to tap into Lucifer's power, yet he had it right there. He looked at the palm of his hand. A black power symbol blazed to life. A beam of light encompassed him once more, releasing and revealing a completely different mech suit with Shadow Soul Jayden at the controls. "So you can transform like a CPU as well, hmm? So you can mimic multiple beings at once then? How many can you mimic at once?" Jayden wasn't sure. He could be mimicking any number of things at the moment. Come to think of it, most of his magic attacks were based on the things he'd seen. Even his one of his more powerful magic smashes was entirely bones and magic spears, finished with a homing fire bomb. Huh.

"In truth, I've no clue." He said, "this is the first I'm learning of this whole mirror synth thing." The wolf closed its eyes and flashed white. When the white light diminished, a girl with blue skin stood where the wolf previously had. She had gorgeous blue eyes, and fin-like structures on her cheeks, as well as long blue hair that flowed down to her thighs. She was dressed in a, light gown, going down to her ankles with arm length gloves adorning her forearms and hands. Nothing covered her feet. Jayden was totally confused. "Wait that's a thing? I wasn't aware that spirits could do that so- WAIT." could Lucifer do that too?! If so then why hadn't he?! What the fu-?! Oh wait, tangents. "So you're actually just normal people too huh?" The girl nodded. "So what's you're name? Mine's Jayden." The rain ceased all together as the girl approached him with a smile on her face.

"Nice to meet you too, the name's Undyne. Most of my previous foes know me as Undyne the Undying. Water and its magics are pretty resilient you know. Why don't we form a bond so you can use my magic too, buddy?" Jayden had to think about that. Could he form a bind with more than one spirit or demon at once? Undyne's eyes narrowed as she gazed into his eyes. He pulled back a little, she was uncomfortably close. Not that he wasn't into girls with scales or anything but... wait, what the hell was he thinking? Now is not the time for...

"Undyne what are you doing?" She rehashed her question now the she knew he was listening. Her face drew closer to his. "Oh, don't do it." She pressed forward and kissed him on the lips, energy surging from her to him. Jayden pulled back. "Oh my goddess. Why?"

"To make the bond, idiot. Didn't you feel the energy?" she asked. What the fuck? Lucifer didn't do that. If Lucifer had done that Jayden would have been exactly 10 thousand percent done like no one's fucking business. Maybe this was a different kind of bond. That was probably it. That was definitely it. Stop getting distracted Jayden. Jayden looked right at Undyne.

"So is this just a magic borrow bond, or is there something I'm giving you as well?" Undyne gave him an interesting look.

"Well, maybe there will be times I need something from you. Then, you can help me out, right?" Jayden had to think about that for a moment. That sounded very wrong. VERY. WRONG. He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"Yeah, sure. Tell me if you need anything." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "That's the house I'll be there in just a sec." Jayden watched her go inside. Well, crap. He'd done all of this stuff... for nothing. He was litterally at his most powerful, in his ultra mech suit, in shadow soul form, and nothing had actually gone down. He reverted back to his normal form and walked back towards the house, kicking a pebble along the way. 

* * *

It was gently drizzling, even without Undyne's influence. It was the kind of dreary day where you expected something to go wrong. Jayden strolled down the sidewalk trying to sort out his head. He was ecstatic, he had a new friend, but he was worried about Eryn, she didn't look so great when he'd left. He was happy that he finally knew what he was, but he was horrified that in a situation like this, he could do nothing to help her. He was calm, walking through the rain, casually sorting out his thought, yet the same thoughts were tearing him apart. What was he going to do now? He could just keep walking and distance himself from the problems, or he could try and face them when he couldn't do anything about him. He paused where he stood and turned back to the house.

Even if he couldn't do anything, he wasn't running away.


	8. The Meeting

**A/N: Hey! This one didn't take forever! I'm so glad that this one got out quicker than my previous update schedule has suggested when it would come out. Last time, we had Jayden battle some unpleasant thoughts and experiences with rain. Also, we learned that Jayden is a mirror synth, which, I totally forgot to explain after the last chapter, is a being that takes a humanoid form, but assumes powers and certain appearance choices from other beings it meets and encounters. We also learned before that, that Jayden is capable of transformation and has a mech suit that he did absolutely nothing with. Nice going Jayden.**

 **Jayden: But... if I didn't have to fight Undyne... why did you make me wear the suit out there in the first place.**

 **Author: Just like what you said, buddy. To show them you had it.**

 **Jayden: But...**

 **Author: Jayden, trust me I'm a whale biologist.**

 **Jayden: Um... Okay?**

 **Nonetheless, this time, we join Jayden as he finishes up his invention to save Planeptune from an early demise! Let's see what he made. I've kept you waiting long enough.**

* * *

After having done research and ruling out the impossible solutions, Jayden eventually came to the conclusion that he must have been slightly insane. He had managed to build the game system, yes, but he'd done so in two days, starting the moment the he'd gotten home after Tumis24 had ended the last chapter. He hadn't once slept and had otherwise gotten no rest or food during the entire time he was working, yet all the same he was absolutely exuberant. The system had been a huge success, being able to negate or allow RL movement during gameplay, and even going so far as to include a defense system. He put one of the systems on. The gloves slipped over the hands perfectly and adjusted themselves to his size. The boots came up over his own shoes and locked in over his ankles. The Helmet slipped perfectly on to his head requiring no adjustment whatsoever. He smiled as the world burst in before him. He currently had his motor functions disabled, so Eryn would just see him sitting on the couch. He played around a bit, running through a field of flowers, jumping from building to building, skydiving without a parachute, which he'd kind of done before anyway... He was waiting for the alarm to go off. He had Hooked into a police alarm and had allowed notifications of when Monsters showed up in Planeptune. When one showed up, he was going to perform his debut of this beautiful thing. The whole thing was even colored purple to represent Planeptune. If this didn't work, well... No. It was going to work. He knew it.

A bright red light began to spin on the wall and a location popped into Jayden's head. Jayden enabled motor functions and got to his feet. The Exoskeleton activated, improving his normal physical abilities. He felt like a powerhouse, and rightfully so. He ran out into the square, knowing that Eryn would be there too. Filled with Determination, he rushed forward, vaulting over whatever was in his way, and sliding under it if it was too high. Eventually he saw the thing. Some kind of Fenrir, water elemental, not one that he'd have an easy time of with Lucifer Undyne. The machine sensed the moster as he ran up to it, activating RL combat so he could fight the beast with ease, and without waiting for the Fenrir to notice, he pulled back his right hand, balling it up and letting loose with a, " **Breaker Blade Fist!** " one of the specials that came with the device. The Fenrir took extra damage from the partial sneak attack, launching backwards and falling flat on its back. It got to its feet quickly, growling at him. People were watching as the two practically danced around each other, exchanging blasts of energy and slashes and sweeps. Eventually, Jayden had built up enough energy to let loose with a Limit Breaker, a special attack that built up energy over time with the kinetic energy of the user. He dropped and began doing windmills, spiraling repeatedly, picking up speed as he went. Finally, he burst upwards, shooting into the sky and diving back down.

" **Nepular Bomb!** "

A skill copied from something he'd seen someone do before. He couldn't remember where. Nonetheless, the impact made the surrounding area burst with energy and rip the fenrir off the ground again. Jayden flipped backwards, landing on his feet and rolling back in order not to get clawed. He could see now that he clearly had the upper hand. Now, he jumped up, high into the air, bringing his hands over his head and coming back down, hammering the fenrir over the jump-hammer fist, dazing it for the moment. This allowed Jayden to switch into gunner mode. He stepped back and raised his right arm and more metal came up around his fist, giving him an arm cannon. He pointed it at the fenrir and let loose a few energy bolts before the fenrir recovered. He charged up power and let loose with another special.

" **Sky Shower!** "

He released a beam directly upwards, into the sky, the beam bursting into separate energy bits. Moments later, the bits of energy came crashing down, creating a mini meteor shower on the fenrir. The beast was weak. Jayden could tell now was the time to finish it off. Lastly, he switched to blade mode. The arm cannon retracted and a brilliant burst of energy shot from Jayden's arm and coalesced into a broadsword. He lept up over the fenrir, putting his left hand on his right hand, driving the blade through the beast, the monster bursting into pixels. Jayden pulled the blade from the ground, the energy dissipating back into his arm. He stood up straight and brushed the dust off himself. He looked over at the people watching, taking note of who was watching and what their expressions were. It was the general sort of surprise to astonishment to awe. Jayden raised on arm up in the air and took a bow. The crowd went wild.

"The Hero of Hi-jinks strikes again!" someone cried. Hero of Hi-jinks? Jaydeno thought. Huh. I don't know if that actually has anything to do with me, but it sounds cool. What kind of Hi-jinks have I actually been up to here in Planeptune? Jayden thought about what he had been doing. Mainly working on the invention and taking out monsters.

"Praise the Hero!" Someone else yelled.

"The Lady's chosen savior!" another called

"Sign my Hero Plush!" Hold-up. **Wat**.  Purposeful misspelling aside, that was the first Jayden had heard of a hero plush. He walked over to the kid with the stuffed doll. The girl held it out to him. At first, Jayden thought the little girl was someone he knew. She was wearing a baby-sized purple hoodie dress with violet and white stockings, standing there holding her plush above her head, which was covered in lilac colored hair, complete with d-pad hair-clips. He picked it up and had a good look at it. It was him sure enough, it was even wearing a little backpack that the girl had put a tiny cardboard shield in. He examined it a little closer, and after a sec he realized that the girl had made it herself. He got down on a knee, placing himself at her height and grabbed a marker from his pocket. It was bright blue. He flipped the flap of the doll's backpack and signed as the Hero of Hi-jinks on the underside of it, putting a note with it:

'Keep at it, (he asked for the girl's name, then quickly added it to the note) Neptune! Planeptune needs people like you to make new cool ideas and keep the people's faith alive!' He handed the doll back to the girl. She smiled at him, her bright violet eyes staring back into him. Neptune... Where had he heard that name before? It didn't matter much. Since the people didn't know his name, the Hero of Hi-jinks would do just as well. It was then that he realized that Neptune didn't have an adult with her. There was no way that Neptune was any more than five, even that might be pushing it. He stood back up and smiled at her. "Where are your folks, Nep?" he asked her.

"My momma's still at home. She's kinda sick, so I ran out here to see you fight that bad monster! You're so cool! Momma's so lucky to have a guard like you!" she said to him. _A guard like me? Who am I the guard of? Does she mean Saturn?_ he silently asked himself. That aside, he didn't want her walking through the streets when there were monsters like that fenrir around. If one of those things came up to her, she had about at much chance as a dandelion against a chainsaw. He kneeled down to her again.

"Hey, I don't think it's too safe to be running around with monsters like the one I just fought around, okay?" she nodded, "why don't you wait here for me and I'll take you to your home after that?" Neptune nodded vigorously at the offer. She was more than happy to go home, walking with her favorite hero. Neptune bounced around, running here and there as Jayden said hello to all the people, all the while telling them about the device he was wearing. He had all the answers to all of their questions, until someone asked him what it was called. Jayden paused on that front. He hadn't called it anything up until this point. He looked over at Neptune, bouncing here and there ever so happily. "It's called, the Nayden Gear!" he said. Sure he'd just put an N in front of his name instead of a J, but still, it sounded cool, so he went with it. That's how he did most things after all. 

* * *

After having met with the watchers and collecting his three companions, Lucifer now standing in his human form, tall, dark eyed, and dressed in a blue and black suit with dark blue hair neatly combed to the side, Jayden walked over to get Neptune who had fallen asleep on a bench after having waited for so long. He gently poked her shoulder, trying to nudge her asleep. After having poked her for the third time, he realized that she wasn't actually asleep, she was just making little sleepy noises to pretend to be asleep. Jayden knew what she wanted.

"Alright, my little maker friend, up we go." Jayden scooped the little girl up off the bench and carried her back towards the town. He just had to hope that Neptune would wake up so that he knew where to take her. After wandering with the little girl in his arms for a while, she shifted and looked up at him, her eyes shining. "Good morning, little sleepy princess," he said to her, "I hope you had a nice nap." she beamed at him and nodded. "That's good to hear, now then." Jayden shifted the girl from his front to his back, moving her onto his upper back so he could carry her and still have her direct him at the same time. In other words, Jayden was carrying Neptune piggyback style. Neptune led him on a rather convoluted path around the streets, weaving in and out of alleyways, jumping over this and that, until eventually she led him to the Basilicom. "Huh," he huffed out, realizing what that meant, "so you're actually Lady Saturn's kid, then?" he asked. Neptune nodded.

"What?" she asked, "did you not believe me?" she asked. Jayden just shrugged.

"I dunno," he told her a little wearily, "Let's just get you inside, I bet your mom and Histoire are worried about you by now." He opened the door and ushered the little purple girl inside, walking in behind her. Eryn, Lucifer, and Undyne waited in the lobby as Jayden walked Neptune over to Histoire. "Delivery," he said, picking up Neptune and sitting her on the counter, "one baby CPU to be for Lady Saturn." Histoire giggled a bit.

"So, she was with you the entire day then, hm?" Both kids nodded at Histoire's question. "I see. Well, that's fine. So long as she was with someone I know she'd be safe with." Histoire said.

"I heard my Neptune come back in." Another female voice said. It's voice was mature. Jayden could swear he'd heard it before. Neptune ran up and hugged the woman who walked in. The woman had deep violet eyes and long dark purple hair that ran to her elbows. Her hair was slightly spiked and messy by her head, framing her face in her purple hair, but as it ran down, it straightened out. She wore a violet hooded sweatshirt and a lilac, almost white shirt underneath. She also had on black and purple sweatpants with violet bunny slippers on her feet. Jayden looked her in the eye. "Hello there. So my darling has spent the day with you, then?" Saturn looked him up and down. She was slightly confused. Where had she seen him before. She hadn't ever met him before, but those eyes... there was no mistaking it, she had seen them before. "Have we met?" she asked suddenly. She felt like she really should know who this boy was, yet somehow she couldn't put her finger on it. She had to have seen him before.

"No ma'am," the boy responded to her. Now she was extremely confused. Her daughter had spent the day with him, she recognized his eyes, and she swore she recognized his voice. Saturn swore under her breath. Suddenly recollection flashed in her eyes, she knew who he was. Histoire, however, cut her off.

"My lady!" Histoire cried. "please! You need to rest until your strength returns!" Saturn raised one hand, bringing Histoire to a pause.

"Thank you Histoire, and return it has." Suddenly Jayden caught on. Took long enough... he thought to himself. The woman cleared her throat. "Also, I wanted to come greet my daughter now that she's come home." she turned to Jayden. "And of course, I should greet my new Royal Guardsman." Jayden deadpanned, his eyes going from bright to almost grey in roughly 4.9 milliseconds.

"You don't even have Royal Guardsmen," he asked, his voice dull, almost annoyed. "do you?" Saturn just sort of shrugged in response.

"I guess I do now." she said. Jayden started chuckling. "What's wrong? Did I make a joke and not realize it?" she asked. Jayden regained his calm demeanor after thirty seconds or so and stood back up straight.

"You know, for the ruler of a nation, I guess I just expected someone a little more formal, you know?" now it was Saturn's turn to laugh. Neptune let out a slight giggle with her.

"Alright then," she put down the little girl and a beam of light burst outwards from her body. Standing before him now was a taller woman with somehow even deeper purple eyes, a CPU bodysuit, and dark purple braided hair. She floated in midair for a moment before slowly drifting down, landing on the ground with infinite grace. She spread her arms. "I am Lady Purple Heart, Leader and Ruler of Planeptune, the land of Purple progress." She stood with her arms out for a moment, before reverting and putting her hand in her pockets. "Does that work for you?"

Jayden stood for a moment before giving a nod. "Yeah, that'll do it." he said. "Though I suppose the casual thing suits you more." The woman's eyes went wide at that remark. She turned to Histoire.

"See?! I told you so!" Saturn half shouted at the book fairy. "Even..." Saturn looked over at him. He mouthed his name. "...Jayden agrees with me!" she finished. She looked back over at him and mouthed a thanks. He returned a wink and a smile, complete with a thumbs up. Histoire sighed.

"Well, at least your shares have returned to the point where holding a transcended state is no longer a chore for you." she said. Saturn beamed.

"Oh, almost all of my strength is already back." she said brightly. She turned to the boy, "I have you to thank for that, Jayden. Histoire told me you are also responsible for my first surge of recovery with the dragon." Jayden just barely managed not to twitch at the memory. "And, she also told me that you're capable of something like an HDD transformation?" Jayden nodded. "Well," Jayden braced himself for more questions than he had answers on his transcended state, but was given something much more pleasant. "HDD or no, you're a friend to me." Jayden looked at Saturn curiously. He had expected her to be so much more questioning with such an ability, but rather she had already given him the title of friend and Royal Guard. Jayden was very pleasantly surprised and happy. It almost felt like he actually fit in. "Don't look so confused," she told him with a warm smile. "You've saved my nation by yourself, you've defended my home multiple times, made my nation a more secure place under your watchful eye, and you've even taken care of my daughter for me now." Neptune smiled at Jayden like he was her best friend. He supposed he might have been at that point. "If you have Neptune's trust," she looked over at the book fairy, "and Histoire's approval and trust as well," she turned to him, "then you have my trust as well. With everything you've done for me, I would love to have you as my guardsman and as my friend. Histoire, Neptune, and Saturn all went over to Jayden. Jayden faltered for a moment before he was caught in a group hug with the three of them. Jayden was thoroughly stuck, he couldn't even really move his arms, but he could feel that the people now hugging him really did care. It gave him a sense of belonging, even if he was several years out of his time. He tried to return the affection he was receiving, but was having a bit of a tough time due to his immobility. After a while he just submitted to it and relaxed, surrounded by caring people. Saturn finally whispered one last thing to Jayden before the three let go:

"Welcome to the family, Jayden."

* * *

 **A/N: Hey! So now Jayden has a place he belongs in this Gamindustri! Also, If you're curious, yes Nepular Bomb is a reference to the GPU fiction with Andy and them by Remitted. I don't even think it's an actual attack, but I'm gonna pretend like it is. So yeah. Also, Neptune's Mother's name is Saturn because Neptune is based off of a Sega console, so I based Saturn after the Sega Saturn. Yeah. No idea why, I just felt like that was a good idea. Anyway, I hope y'all have a lovely day. See ya next chapter!**


	9. Goodbye

**A/N: So Chapter nine is out now, I'm so glad I got it done. There are just a few thing I want to address right now that I've failed to address before. Most of these are questions from people that have pre-read this for me.**

 **A. What does Saturn look like?  
-I know my descriptions aren't the best, but I'll give a further explanation later when Jayden realizes Something else.**

 **B. Is the whole Mirror Synth thing an actual thing?  
-Maybe? I didn't do any research to check, I just assumed it wasn't. The concept of a mirror synth was my idea though, that's not a reference.**

 **C. Your fanfiction makes no sense and it sucks.  
-thank you sir, may I have another? And yes, that is an animal house reference.**

 **D. Surely you must be joking with all this entire convoluted story and plot twists here.  
-No, I'm not joking, and don't call me Shirley. And yes that is an airplane reference. But in all seriousness, maybe I am joking? How could you tell?**

 **E. Is this just a cop out because you wanted the story to go a different way than it was going before?  
-Actually, no. I planned this. It certainly seems that way though, doesn't it? Still better than the fact that FNAF in it's entirety is a dream though. *cue airhorns***

 **F. So what pairings do you plan on doing?  
-Oh shit, I didn't even think about that. That is a thing I have to do, isn't it? I have no idea. Maybe I'll do a harem. Right now, there's no one to pair him up with.**

 **G. JaydenxUndyne?  
-No...**

 **H. JaydenxEryn?  
-I can see you haven't read the chapter yet.**

 **Also, I should address a few things about this chapter.**

 **'s a little longer than my other chapters, maybe by about 500 words, the longest one so far. Just in case, you were finishing on this chapter for the night.**

 **2\. It's rather confusing. There will be questions. Feel free to ask, and if I can answer the question with spoiling later content, I will do my best to do so.**

 **3\. It is slightly sad. Maybe that's me being a sap, but I did tear up slightly while writing it so... I dunno, gauge for yourself.**

 **4\. I'm stalling again, Let's get on with the chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

Jayden sat in the lobby of the Basilicom. It was an uneventful day, which he much preferred to the alternative. The only thing had had to be worried about was Eryn and the nagging feeling in the back of his mind that something big was about to happen. He couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. It was quiet. Too quiet. Neptune should have been providing noise enough to fill most of the room. He looked around the room. It was empty. Where was Neptune? He got up and walked over to the counter, looking over it for Histoire. She wasn't there either.

"Hello?" he called out. "Did I miss something?" he asked "Did everyone leave?" He could feel Lucifer or Undyne in the surrounding area, and if Eryn was around, she would have been by him anyway. We went to grab his shield from the chair where it sat, but nothing sprang from his bracelet. He whipped out his hand again. The beam wasn't there. He whipped out his other hand instead, grabbing the shield with a water tendril, courtesy of Undyne. He brandished his shield, getting ready for whatever was coming his way. The silence was deafening.

Slowly, the room began to darken. Dark... darker... yet darker... The darkness kept growing. The shadows began to cut deeper. Jayden was beginning to panic. There was no way this was normal, it was midday just a moment ago. His breathing quickened and he glanced here and there. All at once, his senses were assaulted by static. Someone was coming, but he couldn't see them, he couldn't hear them, he couldn't even sense their aura. Any and all of his senses were blocked by the static. Symbols began to run through his head, the same ones from the note before. This time, he understood them perfectly. The voice behind them however, was broken and sounded like his, but much, much deeper.

"What are you afraid of?" it asked him. "What are you waiting for? What do you think is going to happen?" He didn't understand the questions. He forced himself to his feet and stared down where the voice was coming from, despite not being able to see it. "Are you afraid of who you will become?" it asked "or what will become of you? Or what will become of those around you? Do you still think that everything is perfectly well, Jayden? I know that I'm... You're smarter than that." the voice wasn't making any sense. "I told you to prepare yourself before." It said, starting to wane away, "but I can see that even that will not help you." Jayden's vision began to clear. "Stay well, my soul."

Jayden blinked twice. He was sitting in the chair he had been previously, and Neptune was sitting on his stomach, gazing into his colorful eyes with her curious little purple ones. She looked upset. Jayden poked her nose, shaking off his own feelings to attend to hers. "what's up?" he asked her.

"You said something in your sleep." she told him. "Something about a t... ti..." the little girl struggled with the big words. "tem... pur... all... an... oh... mah... lee?" Jayden tried to figure out what she had just said.

"Temporal Anomaly?" he asked, to which Neptune nodded. "Huh..." Jayden didn't put it past himself to have something like that ahead of or behind him. He looked at Neptune, who still looked upset. He poked her in the belly this time which yielded a little giggle. He picked the little girl up and swirled around while holding her. She laughed with delight. "Don't worry about me, Nep. I can handle myself." Jayden was still concerned about that, but he could put that aside to take care of his friend. Neptune was running around, her feet flying here and there. He couldn't help but give a laugh himself. "What are you doing, Nep?" Neptune kept running here and there, swinging her arms and moving around, as if she literally found it impossible to sit still.

"I can't help it, Jay-jay!" she screamed with childish joy. She had taken to calling him Jay-jay because apparently the actual two syllables were just too normal for the little girl. "I'm just so happy to have a friend like you! I just gotta dance and stuff!" she said. She grabbed Jayden's hand and the two of them started running in circles around various spots in the Basilicom. Eventually, Jayden found himself and the toddler running in circles around Histoire who seemed to be swirling about in her own sense, trying to keep up with both of them at the same time. Jayden's sense of dread seemed to have lifted entirely as all three of them giggled to each other. It seemed that, for now at least, whatever it had been, was simply a temporary matter that could be handled another time. Histoire was getting rather dizzy, to the point where she was no longer able to stop and giggling like mad, as if someone were violently tickling her and she'd simply gone mad. After only another few minutes or so, Histoire was so dizzy that she fell to the floor, swirls in her eyes, but still, she kept laughing. Jayden was laughing so hard at this point, that he too fell on the floor alongside Histoire. Neptune, not wanting to be left out, flopped on top of the two and continued the uproarious laughter.

Eventually, the commotion called the attention of Saturn who came out and asked for an explanation as to why all three of them were on the floor. Jayden attempted to explain the situation, but his usual stone-face was nowhere to be found as he broke down laughing before he could finish. Neptune attempted to finish what he started, but broke down herself. At this point, Saturn herself was giggling just at the sheer silliness of these two. When Histoire explained what had happened and how she'd fallen off her book, that was all it took to push Saturn off the edge, and before they knew it, everyone in the room was once again rolling around on the floor laughing hysterically. When Jayden finally recovered, it was time to go home. He had the feeling he was forgetting something, but brushed it aside. As he walked home, he could still feel himself giggling slightly. That was probably the most fun he'd had in quite some time, and all it took was some good friends and some fun times. Jayden felt infinitely better as he walked, feeling that nothing could crush his spirits. Unfortunately he was about to receive a rude awakening. 

* * *

When Jayden stepped in the door, Lucifer was on the couch and Undyne was sitting next to him. Jayden immediately felt that something was about to happen. Something that he'd never forget. Jayden steeled himself. "Hey, Lucifer, Undyne, what's up?" They greeted him normally enough. He took off his shoes and placed them in the closet where they belonged, then hung up his jacket in the upper part of the same closet. "How's Eryn?" he asked. Lucifer faltered.

"Uh... I think she's sleeping right now." he said. Jayden didn't notice Undyne's face, or take note of Lucifer's, but rather went up to check on her.

The door creaked open very quietly. Jayden poked his head in and looked at Eryn, laying on her bed. She was pale and seemed drained of energy. He sat next to her quiet body, placing his hand on hers. It was icy cold. He made an effort not to panic, but mostly failed as he checked her vital signs. They weren't there. She had no pulse, no body heat, she wasn't breathing, her lips her dry. Jayden tried to refuse the idea in his head, but there was no other way to explain it. He had to face the truth, he had told himself he wouldn't run, even if he couldn't do anything. Now he truly couldn't.

 _ **Eryn was dead.**_

Events flashed before Jayden's eyes, starting with when he had sky dived into the lake just when landing in this time. She had introduced herself to him then, and had become his first friend, his thin ray of familiarity in this unfamiliar world and time. Then, he saw the day they'd moved. First, eating breakfast together, then coming home to see her, then even watching the star shower and catching Lucifer with her. She had stayed by him then, keeping his hopes up, even when others simply used him such as the factory. Next, he saw the day he fought the dragon, and she had saved him from its attack. She had protected him then, helping him stay strong, giving him the strength he needed to keep moving through this world.

Lastly, he saw the day in the rain, where he had carried her back to the house. She had needed him then, it was so little she needed, just a little help to keep going. He had tried his best to give it to her, but he had failed. He hadn't even gotten to say goodbye. He hadn't even gotten to tell her he would miss her. He had never gotten to tell her that she was his determination in this world that seemed ever so unwelcoming to him. She had just gone from bad to worse after he failed to help her. The truth now was that he couldn't help her. Not then, when she had been injured by the dragon, that had been Histoire. Not then, when she had been beaten by the rain, that had been Lucifer. Not even earlier today. No one had helped her earlier today. He'd been too busy running in circles with a toddler, laughing like an idiot. And not now... Now... no one could help her.

Now she was gone, and there was nothing to be done about it.

Jayden picked up her limp body, and carried her down the stairs. Despite everything, he refused to cry. He would not mourn. Eryn had helped him find his way in this world, and he would use the gift of life and determination that he had given her. As he carried her through the living room downstairs, Undyne put her hands over her mouth when she realized what had happened. Lucifer merely looked down at the ground, as if hoping he could simply ignore everything else and only have the floor be relevant for the time being. Jayden carried her out the door, Lucifer and Undyne close behind him, and around to the back of the house. He didn't stop though, his walk continued, steady paced, and full of purpose.

He continued walking. Through the town. Past the border. Over the bridge between Lastation and Planeptune, The guards not even raising a finger to try and stop him. Through the streets of the Black Nation. Past his old factory workplace. Past his old house. Finally he stood where he wanted to be. He stood before the lake that Eryn had lead him to when he'd first come here. He got on his knees and lowered Eryn's body into the water and let her float away, before her body gently stooped beneath the surface and disappeared forever. Now, despite what he had hoped to achieve, Jayden broke down. He was unable to get to his feet. Tears streamed down his face and he kept his face in his hands as he silently cried into his palms. He heard a gentle pulse of static, and just like that, the world was on pause. Jayden stood, not even angered at this point, just in pain. He turned to the figure from before. He could see it clearly now.

Two scars crossed his face, one starting just underneath his right eye and continuing through his eye up into his hair, the other starting just over his left eye and continuing through it and into his mouth. In contrast, his eye colors flowed beautifully,yet by far, the most eye-catching color was the red and blue. Where the scar crossed his eye, instead of a cut, it was color negative, shining the opposite of what was supposed to be there. They were almost neon in vibrancy and seemed to make his eyes dance with splendor as the colors passed. His hair was a dark, almost black kind of grey or brown color. Too dark to really call brown, but too light to call black. His outfit consisted of a black hoodie with a white t-shirt underneath. He wore perfectly normal jeans for bottoms and black and grey worn sneakers on his feet. Adorning his left wrist was a watch that had a black and red band. From this watch seemed to hang a thread, with a weight on the end, the thread was so thin, it could have passed between molecules, cutting things with almost perfect ease. The thread coiled back up around his wrist and the weight stuck itself to the top of the watch. As for weapons however, that was very much his only one. Even though Jayden knew he possessed the necessary skill and dexterity to dual-wield, it was obvious enough, this was something had had only ever seen once before. He knew some people dual wielded swords or claw type weapons, but this... this was bizarre to say the least. One might even call it extreme. By it, Jayden knew who this was.

 **The man before him dual-wielded shields, one on his left arm, one on his right.**

Jayden simply frowned at himself. "Now's not the time if you want to throw more symbols at me." he told himself, "and if that's what you're planning, then I'm not listening." The other Jayden took a step forward and looked up at himself. No symbols appeared this time. Jayden just heard his own voice, deeper and saddened.

"When I told you to prepare yourself, this was why." the other Jayden said. "I was hoping that I might take that better than I had before, though I suppose I should have given you more context." the normal Jayden shook his head.

"That would have helped I suppose," he said. "especially because I couldn't understand the first one." Jayden noted bluntly. "I guess that makes you future me then, huh?" As Jayden looked at his future self, there was no sense of anything. It seemed like reality was tearing at the seams.

Future Jayden sighed. "I suppose now isn't the time to blow your mind?" Jayden shrugged. If it took his mind off of the current issue, then he was all for it. "If you think about it, that really just removed the source of all your worries over the past few days. Think about it. You were worried about her this morning, before in the rain, before while working on the Nayden gear, and even before that. Do I need to continue?" That made Jayden extremely pissed. Was that seriously the future him's proposal to take his mind off of things? It showed in his face. "Other than that, you've got no reason to be upset...

 **...about something that wasn't there."**

Jayden froze. The future him had said something about that before. He could remember back to the note. It had said something about not everything being what he thought it was. But how could Eryn not have been real? She'd saved his life like, twice! If she wasn't real, then something was wrong, very wrong. Then again, Jayden was talking to his future self, if anyone knew that, then he himself would. By the True Goddess, this was confusing... Not just the fact that he was talking to himself, but the fact that his best friend hadn't existed. "No, no, no... that can't be right." he told himself, but as he said it, and the more he thought about it, the more he knew it was true. "How do you explain that? She saved my life twice? How do you explain that? How do I explain that?"

"She never saved you once." the future Jayden said. "The time when she showed you the lake to land in? You knew where it was. You went there as a kid, remember?" Something pulsed in the back of Jayden's head. He did remember that. His mother had taken him to a trip to Lastation as a child. They had been there because... because... wait, why were they there? More importantly who was his mother? Great. He remembered one thing only to bring up even more questions to other shit he DIDN'T remember. Ain't that just great?

"Alright, I'll give you that one. How do explain the dragon?" surely that one didn't have an explanation.

"Easy." Okay, maybe it did? " You jumped out of the way. Your brain just needed an excuse to move you when you didn't tell it to. That wasn't Eryn, that was just instinct." That was such a stupid explanation. The only problem was it made sense. A lot of the stuff Jayden did was instinct. "Also, if you're wondering about that kiss." Jayden blushed a bit. Yeah, he needed an answer on that one too. "That never happened. Matter of fact, most of the shit that you THINK happened before you met Lucifer didn't. Eryn never bought that house for you, Chian gave it to you as part of the contract of your job. That's why you did the job with the chemicals, that's how she got you to agree. The money was just extra on the side." Jayden had to think about it, but the more he did so, that made much more sense. He'd never given Eryn any money to acquire a house with. Matter of fact, he had the amount of money he did now because he'd never bought a house at all. "So why did everyone act like she was there? I can hear you asking already." Jayden nodded. "Simple. It's the people you've been meeting. Think about it. The only people who have ever acknowledged her were you, Lucifer, and Histoire. Even Undyne never did." That was true, Undyne hadn't seemed like she knew who Eryn was at all. "Why do you think Histoire didn't know who you were talking about when you asked how she was?"

"What?" That threw Jayden for a loop. He didn't remember that bit.

"When you thought Eryn took the hit for you when you fought the dragon." recollection flashed in Jayden's eyes. "When you asked Histoire how Eryn was doing after the fight. She didn't know who you meant at first. She thought it was a joke and she just didn't get the punchline or something. Lucifer's only stayed with the idea because he's bound to you. He doesn't get it either." Jayden looked down at his feet. He could argue with that. There wasn't a way that he knew how to do so. There were no flaws in his argument that he could pick up on to argue against. But wait. There was one.

"Why do you refer to me as 'you' and not just 'us' if we are the same person? It would make more sense wouldn't it?" There was a flaw. Maybe this guy just so happened to look like him. Maybe this guy wasn't him at all. Maybe this was just a coincidence. The more excuses he tried to come up with, the more he stumbled over them and knew that they weren't true. The future him looked him in the eye.

"I'd like to think that you're... that I'M smarter than to try and bullshit my way out of this. How confusing would it get if I were to refer to both of us together like that? Half of what I said above wouldn't make any sense." Jayden just nodded slowly. He knew how this worked, he'd seen it in movies. The future him probably couldn't tell him anymore than that. He took a few steps forward, such that only a foot or two of distance remained between his selves. He looked his future counterpart in the eye.

"Thanks anyway." he said calmly. "Guess I'll see you later." The future him stood there for a second before catching on, then groaned.

"You've got to be kidding me." future him doubled over laughing, before straightening out and continuing. "that's one of the other reasons I refer to you as someone other than myself." Jayden tried to get slightly more serious. "I'm hoping that the future you make," he raised his hand to his face, pointing at his eyes. "Maybe these scars won't have to be here." His future self then turned as if he was going to leave, but before he did, he threw a bottle to Jayden. Jayden looked at it curiously. He wasn't old enough to drink, so what was this for? "If you ever feel down, just put that in an elevator." Jayden looked up at his future self with a look on his face that simply said, 'bro, don't do it.' His future self grinned. "It'll lift your spirits." And with a blip of static, the world resumed and Jayden's future self was gone. Jayden still hadn't recovered from that last line. He smashed the bottle on the floor, laughing hysterically.

"OOOOOOOOOH! MY GOOOOODDESS! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" the worst part was that Jayden was only really kidding himself. Literally. Lucifer and Undyne looked concerned. Technically,they'd just seen him go from on the ground, on his knees to hysterically laughing, and smashing bottles. This probably didn't bode well for what his sanity looked like. Nonetheless, Jayden turned to Lucifer. "I get it, we can stop pretending she exists now." Lucifer almost doubled over and heaved a sigh of relief.

"You have no idea how happy that makes me, I was starting to think you'd lost it." Lucifer blurted out. His hands were on his knees. He looked up at Jayden. "What was with that anyway? did I miss some sort of punchline?" Jayden just shrugged.

"Temporary insanity, no big deal." he didn't have a viable explanation. Saying that he casually had a chat with his future self just made no sense and would make him seem more crazy. That was the last thing he wanted right now. He raised his arms showing the marks created by his binds with the spirit and demon before him. "On a completely separate note, I think it's time we got rid of these. I think we've all expended our usefulness to each other." Lucifer gave him a look. "I have a solution, I wouldn't be so absent minded about this if I didn't. Since we made a bond, you now have the lifespan of a human, and so does Undyne." He looked at Undyne. "If you make a bond with each other, then that stays. Even if you sever your ties to me, that will persist." Jayden looked at them both. "Go ahead then." The two turned to each other and shook hands. Symbols passed over and between their arms and hands when they touched. It was done. With that, Jayden rose both arms into the air, then brought them down, the markings on his arms shattering as he did so. Other than the shattered markings, everyone was the same. Jayden's plan had worked. "Then I suppose this is where we say goodbye, friends." Jayden said. He held out his hand, and Lucifer took it, shaking it graciously.

"I'll never forget you, buddy." Lucifer told him. "You were good to me, and you didn't just treat me like a slave. I appreciate that. Most people would work one of us to death without thinking twice about it." Jayden nodded.

"Same to you, brother. Take care of yourself, and take care of her too, will you?" Lucifer nodded to his question. Jayden then turned to Undyne.

"I only knew you for a little while, but I'm gonna miss you punk." she said.

"I'll miss you too, Undyne." he told her, "and thanks for everything you've done for me. Including the whole Mirror synth thing." Undyne nodded silently, and the two, spirit and demon, took each others' hand and vanished. That was the last time Jayden ever saw them. He felt no emptiness, however. They had been good friends, but only that. It felt like a weight off his shoulders not to have two extra lives on his life-line. He turned on his heel and walked back to Planeptune. 

* * *

When he got to his front door, he realized that there would be no one inside waiting for him. The thought made him sad, but at the same time, he knew that this was merely a new start. He shook off the sadness and held his chin up. Jayden could remember this morning, running around with Neptune. That brightened his mood even more. There was no need to feel emptiness or loneliness. Jayden had a family now, and as such he looked forward to what tomorrow would bring.

As he stepped inside, he heard some small footsteps, causing him to turn around. It was Neptune, standing just behind him, an adorable smile on her face. Jayden couldn't help but to reciprocate the smile and picked Neptune up, giving her a hug. It was late and more so, it was cold. Jayden was curious as to what she was doing. "Why are you out so late, Nep?" he asked the little girl. "Shouldn't you be home? I bet Histoire and your mom are worried about you." Neptune shrugged.

"I wanted to come out to tell you something, Jay-jay." Neptune said. She sounded happy, bit Neptune usually sounded happy, so he wasn't paying attention to her joyous tone. "I heard mom and Histy talking about giving you a room in our home since your part of our family now, and I got so excited, I just ran out here to tell you, but you weren't home, so I waited for you." Jayden asked how long she had been waiting. He didn't expect an exact answer from a toddler, but maybe he could get come kind of gauge. "I wasn't really waiting to long for you, Jay-jay, so don't worry!" Huh. Jayden had been expecting an extreme hyperbole. He held the little girl close and began to walk back towards the Basilicom, sheltering her from the cold him his jacket wrapped around her.

When he got there Saturn and Histoire were waiting at the door. He smiled when he saw the two of them. He put down Neptune and said hello to the other two, before addressing what Neptune had told him. "So Neptune tells me that you have something to tell me?" He didn't want to propose something that wasn't true, just to be polite.

Saturn gave him a warm smile, one that was so warm, Jayden could actually feel the warmth resonating within himself. All three of his family stood, smiling at him with the same warmth. He could feel the affection. It made him feel safe, warm, like these people cared about him, like he belonged with them. "Yes." Saturn said, her voice very pleased. "I have some wonderful news for you. Histoire and I have decided to give you a room in the Basilicom to stay in as part of the Planeptune family." Jayden graciously accepted right away and Histoire went to prepare his room. Neptune was absolutely ecstatic that her best friend would be staying with them. Saturn walked over to Jayden and hugged him so tightly and passionately that he could feel her love in the embrace. He hugged her back, wanting to reciprocate the affection being given to him. Neptune also hugged him as they stood, in the Basilicom. When they finally separated, Saturn held bothhis shoulders and looked him right in the eye, her smile still warm and affectionate as she spoke.

"Well then, Jayden," she said to him, "Welcome home."

* * *

 **So that just happened I suppose. Now we've got more questions that people asked me after pre-reading this for me!**

 **I. Why did Jayden sever the bonds with Lucifer and Undyne?  
-Oh, that's an easy one, because- uh... actually. Why DID you do that, Jayden?  
Jayden: Because it was in the script? I mean... That IS what I was supposed to do right?  
24: works for me, there you have it ladies and gentlemen.**

 **J:Surely, you're joking with the answer to that last question.  
-See question D that happened before the chapter started.**

 **K:Will they ever be back?  
-Nope. At least not in anyway I have panned right now. And to be serious for the past question, Jayden severs his bond because, as he says, he doesn't need it anymore and he doesn't want two other lives to be reliant on his continuing.**

 **L: Did you really just do that?  
-I did a lot of things this chapter, please be more specific than that.  
**

 **M: About that scene when Saturn says welcome home... You really like hugging scenes, don't you?  
-Oh absolutely. I also like kissing scenes, and other types of love scenes, but the most you'll see in this fanfiction is kissing and sleeping in the same bed. It's T-rated for a reason. But yeah, absolutely love those kinds of scenes. So does Jayden, he's the one receiving all this affection.  
Jayden: Um... because you scripted it, though.  
24: Oh come on, Jay. You know you like it. Saturn's hugged you like twice now and you still deny that she gives the best hugs out of anyone yet introduced in this fanfiction.  
Jayden: Okay, that's fair, she does give really nice hugs. Also, when do I get my memory back?  
24: Dude, you get your memory back like four times later, don't worry, you will have them back.  
Jayden: How does that make sense? I don't think it does.  
24: Jayden. Buddy. Trust me. I'm a whale biologist.  
Jayden: Have you ever even seen a whale?  
24: Have you ever actually kissed a girl?  
Jayden: What does that have to do with anything?  
24: You seem to do that a lot lately.  
Jayden: But only because you script it.  
24: I'm just recording what you're doing. It's why we're still here.  
Jayden: Wait what?  
24: Also, what about that time that you kissed Saturn when I wasn't paying attention so that I wouldn't put it in the fic?  
Jayden: Wait, you saw that? Also, What do you mean we're still here?  
24: My audio log is still rolling... Everything we say right now can be heard or read by the viewers.  
Jayden: Oh... Wait, so they just heard-  
24:Yup.**

 **Jayden rolls his eyes and stares Tumis24 down.  
**

 **Jayden: I could beat the hell out of you for that.  
24: I'd like to see you try.  
Jayden: Make yourself a secret boss. I will fight you.  
24:Sure, later. I have to figure out how to fit myself into the script then.  
Jayden: Wait, like the whole script?  
24: Oh yeah, If I'm making an appearance, I'm staying for the rest of the fiction. I'll help, I promise.  
**

 **Jayden considers the idea, then holds out his hand.  
**

 **Jayden: Alright. I look forward to fight you, then fighting by your side in the future.  
24: I look forward to it myself. Now, if you'll excuse us, viewers, we have to go make Chapter ten happen. I hope you all have wonderful days, and I'll see all you in the next chapter!  
Jayden: Peace, guys!**


	10. The Truth and the Future

**A/N: This paragraph is a slight modification of an actual event that happened in real life. Someone really liked the idea of Jayden and I having a fight, but rather than an actual fight, just getting into an all out pun war where everyone present was just throwing around whatever puns or jokes they could think of, so I decided to go somewhere I could actually simulate this event by talking to some friends of mine. The only parts changed should be obvious enough, such as certain thoughts and actions, as well as the names, then the epic battle in the second half. Does that count as spoilers or...? Nah, it's my own story, we can all relax. There will be puns. There will be bad jokes. But most of all... there will be Jayden. There will be Neptune. There will be Histoire. There will be Saturn. I'll be there as well.**

 **Viewer Discretion is therefore advised, and recommended, but not at all necessary for a really bad time that in no way involves skeletons in hoodies with glowing blue eyes, only good friends and bad laughs that may or may not bring you joy or mental pain from how bad they are. I am not responsible for any and all injuries and/or brain farts and/or muscle spasms that may or may not occur due to reading this chapter. Enjoy.**

* * *

Jayden was walking down the road, back towards the Basilicom. It was still early in the moring, but he'd just bought some groceries and intended to put them in the fridge before setting off on his daily rounds of guild quests and annoying Histoire. Jayden got the the door and was considering whether he wanted to pull it open. "I guess you could say I'm considering whether door not I want to open it." Jayden stop. Jayden pulled open the door and stepped inside, on the other side of which, Neptune was waiting for him. "Hi." he said casually. "What's up, Nep?"

"Me." she told him. Jayden paused for exactly 3.14 second before catching on. Neptune giggled at his face. The only thing that would have made her laugh more would be if she'd Pi'd him in the face.

"Oh, and you're yelling at me for making jokes." Jayden said to no one in particular. "Hey, I was talking to you, Mr. Condescending Narrator Tumis24 Person." Oh that's how it's going to be is it? Okay, game on, Jayden.

* * *

I walked through the doors of the Basilicom, Histoire greeting me as I walked in, "Welcome back, Mr. 24." I nodded to her as a greeting. Jayden was confused as all buggery, seeing as I suppose he'd never seen me before.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" he asked. "Histoire, who is that?"

"That's Tumis24." she told him, giggling slightly. I walked up to him, and he flinched as if he expected me to punch him in the face. I wasn't planning on it, but I could have if I wanted to.

"Well?" I asked him. "You want to make jokes? Let's make jokes." Jayden's face changed from anxiety to childish joy faster than I could follow.

"Surely you must be joking. You came all the way here just to make jokes with us?" I smiled. Jayden was like a kid in a candy shop. Neptune was over by my leg, smiling up at me. I patted her head. It felt good to be back after so long.

"That's the entire point of the chapter at the moment, seriously, the title is Pun Sessions, why wouldn't I come? The whole first bit of the chapter's all jokes, then you have an epic battle in the second part." I told him. I had to reflect on this for a moment. The title was Pun Sessions as it stood right now, but would the title be the same later? Probably not. Maybe I'd change it to something else like... A brief visitation or something like that. I dunno, titles were the last things I usually put on chapters, hell the last one only got a chapter title when I was typing the last four paragraphs, but I've digressed. "Nonetheless, it feels good to be back. Or maybe I've gone forward?" I turned to Histoire. "Neptune is a child right now. What time frame am I in?" I asked.

"First story arc, chapter ten, right after the introduction, Jayden's lost his memory, Eryn's dead and didn't exist, Lucifer and Undyne have left, and Saturn's shares have been recovered. Jayden's just gotten his room in the Basilicom, and he just brought back the groceries." she responded concisely.

"Lovely" I said. "What jokes have we already made?"

"Uh..." it was Jayden this time. "Whether door not, lift your spirits, see you later, annoying Pi jokes, what's up, surely you must be joking, whale biologist, how can I be frank, humerus, bonetrousle, and are you calling me stupid. Did I miss anything?"

"You forgot the Papy Player, Jay-jay," Neptune told him. I stifled a laugh.

"Okay... Then where do we start?" I asked.

"Not sure," Jayden said, "but it seems like we've done this before."

"I guess you've got Deja moo then" I told him.

"That doesn't even make any-"

"You've heard all this bull before." Jayden looked at me and stood there, staring until I broke down laughing. His face was absolutely priceless. "Come on Jayden, even Histoire got that one." It was true, the book fairy had almost fallen off her book again. I was expecting her to maybe be a little more resistant to laughing than that. There was a window up on top of the building, allowing for a view of the sky. I looked up and winked at Jayden. He caught my drift. "Hey look guys, it's a plane going overhead." They all looked up.

"Yeah, looks like a mail plane too." Jayden said.

"Definitely" I responded naturally. Saturn had come out at this time and was also looking up at the plane.

"How can you tell?" she asked. I looked at her, managing not to laugh at the quizzical look on her face. "I can't see a symbol on it."

"Well that's easy," Jayden said. "Didn't you see the two little balls on it?" Four seconds. That's how long it took for the joke to process. And then, everyone fell over. I wasn't sure why Neptune understood that, but I wasn't about to question it. I was hoping someone would have slapped Jayden for making the joke, but that kind of reaction would do anyway.

"My word, that buildup..." Histoire said.

Saturn recovered enough to talk. "I can imagine another buildup joke, however." Histoire made a face. Saturn walked over to me and pulled me close. "Come on then, Tumis24." Saturn looked into my yes. "would you like to kiss me?" I chuckled a bit.

"Well, sure." I turned and walked a ways through the lobby, then had a seat on one of the seats around the lobby. She looked at me.

"Well?" she asked. "I'm waiting."

I got up and walked back over to her. "What, you meant here and now?" I asked. This was really winding up.

"Well," she said, "if you prefer, we could take a walk, and you could kiss me on the balcony, instead."

I waited a moment, then shook my head. "I honestly think the lips would be better." Histoire realized what had happened and completely lost it, falling to the floor for the second chapter in a row. Saturn was almost there herself. Neptune was practically rolling back and forth across the floor. I chuckled. Jayden simply had his face in his palm. "Oh come one, Jay. Don't you know what humor is?" Jayden looked up at me.

"No, apparently not." He looked at me. "Of course, neither do you, so go figure." I looked at him with a sort of 'Orly?' face. "Let's not start spouting memes." he said. "There's a fine line between jokes and memes, let's stay on the right side of said line."

"Agreed," Histoire concurred. "I don't need Neptune turning into a meme spouter and becoming the world's most annoying goddess yet." Well that's fair.

"Okay, I get you." I noted. Then the burst sounded outside. I whipped around. "Knew it would happen, just wish I had more time..." I muttered to myself. My fingers were digitizing, I hadn't much time left in this dimension, I'd have to return to Earth's dimension soon enough. I could only hope I had enough time to make the fight outside possible for Jayden to accomplish. I could also only hope that he would understand. Maybe I'd rename this chapter The Truth? "Jayden, Outside, now." Saturn made a notion as if to transform into her transcended state but I stopped her. "This is Jayden's path and my mistake, just trust me. I'm a whale biologist and I have blue hair. None of this makes much sense, but I'm sure you know what I mean." Suddenly I realized what this chapter was. It was the first **SB** chapter. "Lovely," I muttered under my breath. "I needed some shit like this." We emerged from the Basilicom to find Future Jayden outside, his name's Switch by the way. I notified Jayden of that. Suddenly, I felt my head go fuzzy, my vision dropped in resolution and gradually fixed itself. Jayden looked over at me.

"You think you can handle this, old man?" _Old man? Fuck off, Jayden, you're like sixteen, I'm like a day older than you._ "Whoa..." Jayden paused for a moment, hearing my voice, not from my throat, but rather as an audible thought. "Did you lose your vocal chords or something? We haven't even started yet..." _I don't belong in this dimension. I think it knows that, and as such, it's trying to get rid of me. If I stick around too long, it'll succeed. If this were your actual- oh shit wait, no. spoilers. Uh, just... I haven't got much time. Let's make this quick alright?_ "Whatever you say, but I don't think Switch plans on giving up so easily." I raised my arm and drew a star in the air, right where Switch's body was.

 **Ink Blade 10!**

Invisible Blades assaulted Switch, cutting a star shape and giving a burst of light afterwards. That'd disable the ability I was most afraid of. Switch, true to his name, could create anomalies in space and the world's processing. That included manipulating gravity, which Jayden didn't stand a chance against. Unlike a CPU, Jayden couldn't fly. Not even Shadow soul could fly, only jump. Next, I drew a downwards facing arrow over him. Switch's body turned momentarily blue and he fell to his knees, but then regained his composure. That should keep him from making any anomalies to move himself faster than Jayden could handle. Switch glared at me. "I could've had this." he snarled, "I could've replaced him and fixed this, yet you won't let me. Accept that you've failed, 24." _Not happening._ I took off the ring on the middle finger of my right hand. It was my Airbrush ring, the very piece that allowed me to perform such techniques. I tossed it to Jayden. I knew he'd only know Ink Blade 1, but it was better than nothing. Jayden slipped it on. He looked over at me.

"So who is Switch?" he asked. I paused for a moment. He deserved to know. _Switch is an amalgamation of People you were supposed to be._ I looked over at him, looking him dead in the eye. _Unfortunately, he's not on his own. I had a lot of ideas for you, and you might recognize some of them unfortunately, but all of them failed..._ I sighed. _Except for you. You persevered. You have my faith and trust, you have the determination, you have the hope. I know you can do this. I'm out of time here, but I've leveled the playing field for you. Take him out. I'll hold the fort on the narration side of things._

* * *

Jayden brandished his shields. He'd recovered his right one when transforming to shadow soul for the first time. In order to conserve energy though, he didn't want to start with that if he could afford it. Switch had other plans. A beam burst outwards. Standing in his place was someone comparable to Shadow Soul, but somehow different. Probably someone like Switch Soul or something. Jayden looked at the ring on his finger. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, he looked up at Switch. He wasn't moving. Jayden instinctively raised one hand, drawing his finger across Switch, a black line forming in the air. Jayden held it there for a moment, then released his focus. The moment he did so, reality seemed to resume.

 **Ink Blade 1!**

Pixels burst outwards from Switch, implying that he'd taken a hit. Jayden took a moment, then pondered whether or not he could do this without needing to pause time. He looked at a lamp post, just down the street from Switch. He reached out to it and an ink cable burst forth, grabbing the pole, solidifying, and pulling him towards it. Holy hell, this was just like Equitable Motivation, except with multiple grapples!. Jayden grabbed one pole then the next, swinging at a speed that was essentially impossible to follow, landing on one of the rooftops and blasting Switch with a magic burst before he was even aware of what was happening. He gave a cocky wave before jumping over an attack and diving at Switch. Jayden got ready to give him a punch across the face, but Switch wasn't just there to get his ass handed to him. Switch moved out of the way, letting Jayden his the floor, then launching him back up with an anomaly, then bashing him across the city, Jayden landing in an abandoned factory. He stood up, still raring to go. Switch landed just in front of him and went to swing at Jayden, but Jayden rolled, pulling a Zelda-style fake-out, around Switch, popping up at the last moment, slamming Switch in the back and sending him flying forward. Jayden then pulled himself past Switch and turned at the last moment possible, kicking him into the air.

 **"Night Drop!"**

Jayden threw out his hands as if he were letting loose a barrage of throwing weapons, but rather, loosed a magic burst that sent Switch flying back downward. The element was darkness, blinding Switch as he fell. Switch hit the ground, Jayden landing a ways away. Switch threw an anomaly in his direction, but before it landed, Jayden threw him a curveball.

 **"Function Psyche!"**

Jayden performed a move similar to a Mario Cape-flip, except with another magic burst, sending the anomaly back in the other direction. When it landed, Switch was knocked back and dazed. His blind had just worn off, but Jayden intended to end this with one last action. Switch stood. "Just let me win! If I take your place, I can fix the timeline! I can prevent this world's demise!" Jayden stood strong.

"Anything you can do, I can do I better. Besides, if you can correct the timeline, why do I have to die? That doesn't seem like the definition of correcting."

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or one. If you don't die here, everyone could die later." Jayden scoffed.

"I don't buy it." Switch glared at him

"This isn't a joke! I'm being serious here!" Jayden sprang towards him, landing a fist in his face.

"Fuck you..." he rushed through Switch multiple times, landing hits and racking up tons of damage. "And your shit!"

 **"Blade Knuckle!"**

Jayden punched so forcefully, so quickly, and with so much energy behind the strike that it actually tore the air, seemingly slashing through the fabric of physics and reality with the punch. Switch flew off, slamming into the factory wall. Jayden walked up to him and waited for him to regain his bearings, or what was left of them. Switch took in the situation, seemingly knowing that he'd picked the wrong fight.

Now, Jayden stood apart from his future self, staring himself down. "You're afraid." he told Switch. "though not of death, you don't fear that anymore. Makes sense. That fear stopped a long time ago. Even I no longer fear it, so I see what that says for you. Rather you're afraid of being wrong. Afraid of repeating the same mistake."

Switch was scarred and bloodied. His past self had done a number on him hardly taking a scratch himself. "You don't understand." he managed, his breathing ragged. "You're on the path to the same mistake. The same dark future where I exist." he paused, only to catch his breath. "You're going to die with them if you continue like this." By them of course he meant the CPUs

"Then I will die with them." Jayden said confidently. "It already beats your future. At least I will have the comfort of my family. You only have yourself, and even you don't understand yourself."

"You're cocky now." Switch shot back, "you're childish, and your memories won't help you. You're out of time, not in the normal sense, but not in your place. You don't belong."

"That's where you're wrong." Jayden retorted. "I do belong here. The fact that I am from another time changes very little. I belong where my family is, and this is where and when they are. I will stay with them. I can succeed where you have failed." Jayden sighed and stood his ground. He wasn't about to give up because he feared the future. "I no longer fear your future. I've changed history once, how hard could it be to do so again?"

"You know, I told myself the same thing when future-us came to visit me." Switch's eyes were soulless.

"Then I guess I'll be hearing it again if you're right." Jayden replied. Switch sighed.

"They're doomed at this rate." he looked at Jayden, pain in his eyes. "Surely you must know that." Jayden nodded sadly.

"It is possible..." he trailed off, trying not to think about a day when he could lose it all. Maybe he could change that... "All the same, it is a privilege to be among them." he said with a smile. "After all, a thing is not beautiful because it lasts." Jayden chuckled softly and shook his head. "A thing is beautiful because while it does last it brings you joy. While it does last, it makes you want to have it. It makes you want to be there." Jayden paused, then turned back to Switch. "In the case of a family, it makes you want to be with them." Switch seemed to falter for a moment, his face softening.

"Maybe you truly are different." he said. "maybe you will be the time loop to find a solution. To make it so that it can both be beautiful and last at the same time." A smile crossed his face... Then vanished just as suddenly. "What am I saying?" Switch began to start a maniacal laugh. "You won't change a thing. We've gone through over twenty time loops and you think you can change anything?! You're unbelievably naive!" Jayden simply shook his head.

"I DO have amnesia." he said, covering his mouth with his hand and looking at the setting sun. "All this knowledge rushing in at once... " He turned back to Switch. "I know it's rebirth, but it's in the game's title, so that justifies it. So in all honesty and seriousness..." Jayden looked down for a moment, then looked back up, his face calm, a smile across it. "It's almost like I was born yesterday."

Switch didn't even acknowledge it. "This changes nothing." he pulled out his sword, one that Jayden had never seen before. "I will kill you myself if I must." Jayden just stood there.

'If you do that, you fail instantly." he said calmly. "if you kill me here and now, then I never become you. You cease to exist and you can never kill me in the first place. In other words, you'll just restart the conversation and freeze us in time, or maybe create a paradox, that'd be fun." Switch didn't seem convinced.

"No matter." he snarled. "I would rather cease to exist than to live that timeline again, or to let it happen again. I won't let you make me do that. I won't let you do that to everyone else." Jayden just sighed and shook his head.

"This is how I know we're different you and I." he said. "I'm already a different person than you. Because, I have hope where you have only depression. You've fallen and are unable to get back up. You aren't stuck in a loop, friend." Jayden's tone was deadly serious. "Rather, you've just taken too long to get here, but now that you are here..." he heaved a sigh once more.

"You've finally reached the end of the line."

"Fine then. If this is the attitude you would take, if you think this will solve everything and rectify the problem, then do it. Kill me." Jayden spread out his arms, opening up into a T position, completely exposing himself. His defenses dropped, he wore no armor, he was wide open. "I would gladly give my life to create a world where my family can live on without me, and where they can do better without my help than I could ever hope to help them to be. So do it. If you think you can fix this, then I'm only kidding myself." Switch could see that his counterpart was deadly serious. He raised his blade up.

"Let's see where that attitude gets you." he brought the sword down, cleaving through Jayden's chest, but the sword didn't cut him. Rather, bolts began to fly, sparks erupted as reality began to break. It was already tearing at its seams with both of them together, but now it full on swerved out of control, timelines slamming left and right, forward and back, up and down, crashing into one another, until... Everything was black for but a moment, the Jayden opened his eyes. It was still the same scene. His future self held out the sword, and bolts still flew, but now something was happening in that timeline only. "Do you realize what just happened? There are so many timelines now that at least one of them has to be successful, but you're never gonna find it. There are too many. You've given yourself hope and taken it away in the same breath." Jayden sighed and said nothing. Switch screamed out one last time and seemed to fuse with the blade, turning into a ball of energy before disappearing into Jayden's chest. Jayden flashed once, his hoodie changing to black, his pants changing to blue sweatpants and his shoes turning into cyber shoes. His energies combined with the power of Switch and all of his experience, Jayden was changing, evolving almost. His undershirt changed to a sword running down the middle of the shirt, the remaining space split into four pieces, each one representing fire, water, earth/nature, and thunder/wind. Jayden sighed and leaned back against a tree. Then he held out his hand and the blade appeared once more, but only the hilt. He grabbed the hilt firmly and it changed in his hand, tuning into was looked like a music note, attached to a grip with a place for his thumb at the top. His hand fit the grip perfectly and he could hold it either way.

There were two triggers on the blade, one on the main length of it that would be pressed by his hand if he held it that way and another that was in the thumb slot. He pulled the main trigger and a long, large, flat blade extended from it. The blade was round, but incredibly sharp. It was grey in colour. He knew what it was made of. A metal called Sonic Silver. The metal resonated whenever it was held by someone powerful. It was almost like the metal that composed his shields, yet it also vibrated slightly whenever active. The vibrations made the blade weaken the molecular bonds of whatever it touched, so even if the blade wasn't sharp enough to cut it normally, this feature would fix that. This kind of metal was so durable that it could cut through anything if he swung hard enough. Jayden let go of the first trigger and pulled the second one. The metal blade retracted and an even longer, blue, beam shot from the hilt, ending at just over four feet long. The blade was nearly as long as he was tall. He swung the beam at the tree he'd just been leaning against, and it passed through with now effort required, the tree falling to the ground. Lastly, he let go of the second trigger, only to pull the first once more. The metal blade shot out. He then pulled the second trigger while still holding the first. The Sonic blade split in half and changed shape, becoming both a cross-guard and an extra blade, while the beam charged through the center, occupying the entire space and even forming a blade at the end. He gave it a swing, noting that the blade was much too heavy for any normal person too lift. Yet for him, it was wonderfully balanced. In other words, the blade seemed destined for his hand. He jumped, spinning in mid-air, swinging the blade and creating a burst of air that blew several trees out of their roots. From that moment, he knew the blade's name. He called out to it.

"Zhengyi Xiongshou!"

Energy burst forth, surrounding the blade and dancing around it creating colourful ribbons of light. Jayden was astonished. Even though he had just acquired this blade, and this was the first time he was ever holding it, the blade treated him as an old friend. Jayden wasn't stupid. He knew that this was more than just a normal blade. He could feel its immense energy. The sword was as almost, if not as strong as he was. He realized then, that he knew why the blade was so strong, and more so, why it treated him the way it did. The blade held the souls of him from timelines that had failed before he came along. Now they gave him power and willed him to continue, to succeed where they had failed. He could feel one particularly powerful spirit. It was the one he had just been talking to.

"This is the difference friend." he told the blade. "Now I have you, and now that we're together, the future is brighter than it could have been before. He was slightly concerned about the blades' name however. It was traditional Chinese, the first language his mother had ever taught him. Loosely translated, it meant Justice Killer. Jayden could only hope that it was a killer in the name of Justice, rather than a killer of the named element of Justice. He released both triggers and the blade tamed itself, retracting into the hilt. He looked at it. "I need a nick-name for you." he told it. The blade resonated in his hand. It know what he meant. Even if he called it by its first name, Zhengyi was quite a mouthful, let alone when you decided to add Xiongshou. "Any recommendations?" the sword was silent. "Does Zhen work for you?" the blade pulsed bright white. "I'll take that as a yes." He could feel its agreement. "Well then Zhen..." Jayden looked at the setting sun. "Today is over. And with it, ends the fear and sorrow that you've held onto." he said with confidence. "This time, the future's gonna be different. This time, I'm gonna succeed."

"This time, the future is mine to decide."


	11. The Tuner of Fate

**A/N: So if you can't tell by the title, or forgot about the fact that Jayden's an amnesiac, this chapter is a bit of memories. This was originally supposed to go between chapters 3 and 4, but I think placing it here worked just a little bit better. I also added in a few bits in between memories to ease the story.  
That's all I've got for you this time. Enjoy!**

 **Sidenote: This Chapter is VERY long compared to my other chapters.**

* * *

The first thing that Neptune had pointed out to him when he got home was the existence of a white streak that existed in his hair. Jayden was never one to pay much attention to his hair colour, so he hadn't noticed until she'd pointed it out to him. His hair had also gone jet black, just like when he became shadow soul. He wasn't quite sure what that would mean later, but it was kind of a neat change no less. Yesterday had been an interesting day.

Today, to get back to the main story, was going to be no less interesting. How did one go about doing this? How was he going to phrase or word this? How was he going to bring himself to do this? He was sitting in his room, his hands over his mouth thinking about what he was about to do. It was probably going to make his relationship with everyone else VERY interesting to say the least. How was Histoire going to react, of all people? This was the most ground breaking for the two of them.

"Relax..." Jayden told himself. "It's Histoire, she probably won't even make that big of a deal about it." Then he thought back to when the book fairy had fallen off her book laughing when they'd been telling jokes. This was quite a bit more shocking to say the least. Now Jayden was worried again. He didn't want to wind up losing them as his friends. "Alright..." he said. "I can do this." Jayden steeled himself, then walked out of his room. "Oh," he mentally noted to check the time next time he decided to walk out of his room dramatically to make an announcement. He checked the clock by the side of his bed: 5:27. Shit. Well this was anti-climactic now.

Jayden walked into the kitchen and began preparing breakfast for himself and the other three, cracking some eggs, mixing some flour and sugar, adding some ingredients here and there, toasting chestnuts, cooking bacon, and flipping pancakes. By the time he was done, it was 6:00 and Histoire and Saturn were patiently waiting at the table while Neptune was handing out forks and pouring orange or apple juice, milk, or water for the respective people who wanted them.

"What's the special occasion, Jay?" Saturn asked, "You're not usually up this early."

"Well, actually, I am. I've just been sleeping in these past few days because I've been working more than normal." Saturn raised an eyebrow.

"I thought 'these past few days' were all you could remember?" Jayden mentally checked what he'd already told them. Since they knew he was already an amnesiac, that made this a little bit easier, but not much.

"Well, I actually remembered some things." Jayden said. "Here, I'll tell you over breakfast." He served up some pancakes, eggs, bacon, and chestnuts onto four plates and brought them over to the table. "so... Let's get started... uh..." he waited until Histoire had swallowed her drink. He was planning on getting soaked so early in the morning. "Histoire, I apologize in advance for what this is going to make you think, but um... I'm kind of your son." Histoire looked at him with a face that was somewhere between 'oh, okay' and 'you have my attention now.' Jayden mentally heaved a sigh of relief, "Thank the true goddess, I thought you were going to take that so much worse than you did..."

"If my son would be anyone, I'd be proud to have him be you, but all the same, I would appreciate an explanation. I'm not married, nor have I ever been married, or in a serious romantic relationship with anyone." Jayden tried to think about how to add this next bit.

"There's an easy answer to that with a not so easy to follow story behind it." he said.

"Well," Saturn had an idea, "Why not just tell us what you remembered? As if you were narrating a story or something?"

I got you Jayden. I'll handle this. Cue the line break and flashback!

* * *

Jayden sighed, he asked for so little. In all honesty, there were only ever two things that Jayden would ever wish for at this point.

First and foremost: for His mother to be pleased with his accomplishments and be proud of him.

She was actually just over there, her bed just a ways from his. Judging by her breathing pattern, the book fairy was not yet asleep. Jayden knew his mother's breathing pattern well, and it was not yet slow enough. He knew she was proud of him, and that she loved him dearly, but he wanted to keep giving her reasons to do and be so. It wasn't to inflate his ego either, he genuinely wanted to be a good person, it made him feel good. It made him feel... complete. Like the hero he had gained the urge to become a few years ago.

On the other hand, his other main desire was a little ridiculous. It was much less founded, much less logical, and much, MUCH less about his morals. That would be about his height.

Granted his mother was a book fairy and she was 3' 10" while the average height for this world's people was 4' 5", Jayden was still an inch _shorter_ than his mother, and for crying out loud, he was ten years old! He knew he wasn't human, but he also knew he wasn't a fairy or a smaller species. What he did know, however, was that he was WAY too short for it to be normal. This became much more apparent when on guild quests and spending nights in the various Inns dotted around the nations. These beds were a little over seven feet long to accommodate for individuals who were much taller than average, which Jayden very clearly wasn't. With a sigh, the boy turned onto his side, trying not to rouse his mother. He wasn't in the mood for a chat. Due to the nature of this fiction however, we all know what's about to happen.

"Something troubling you, Baby?" Histoire asked from her bed, her maternal instincts kicking in to check on her pseudo son. A quiet sound notified Jayden, that Histoire was indeed awake the entire time and was just reading a book and had now closed it to check on him. He huffed and silently cursed the ever present plot convenience.

"Mother, you really should be asleep rather than reading at this hour. You work so hard during the days." the boy replied flopping over onto his back, then to his side looking over to her.

Histoire instantly picked up on his tone. "Thank you, Jayden. But, there's no need to be concerned. It's only for a few hours."

"It's midnight." He pointed out, the clock by his bedside reading 11:56. Not exactly the time he had noted, but He'd gotten used to rounding the times to the closest convenient figure.

Histoire put the book down, they both knew that Histoire had been waiting for a moment to check in on him. She had sensed him being awake since she came in, and she also picked up that he had cleverly changed the subject. "Also, you avoided my question." Jayden didn't have anything to say. He had indeed attempted to dodge the question, but his mother knew him better than that. "It's about your height again, isn't it?" she continued, once again seeing right into her son's head. Histoire knew her boy well, and she knew when something was bothering him and, further more, when he needed to talk about it to relieve his internal bouts and doubts.

Jayden sighed, turning in the large bed to face the Oracle and began to speak, "Can you really blame me for being just a little self conscious, Mother? Most people who play the games are unable to tell just how tall you are, even though this Fic says your height is about 3'10'' and I'm only slightly smaller, I don't exactly feel like I'm even 115cm tall."

"Well..." Histoire was running out of things to say. Height was a bit of a soft spot for her too. She wanted to choose her words carefully and make this work positively. "Think about it this way, people who play the games think Neptune's an idiot, yet she doesn't let that get her down."

"But she is an idiot, Mother," Jayden replied, not amused. "Much the same way, people might think I'm short or not, but that doesn't change the fact that I AM short."

"Well... maybe it's just part of your character. And the important thing is that you work with that, right?" Histoire noted, sounding fittingly wise. "All you need to do is acknowledge it and conquer it, then use it for your own benefit and work around it if it gets in the way later."

Jayden was at a complete loss of words, not just from how deep that was, but how utterly simple it sounded at the same time. It almost made him wonder why he hadn't thought of it in the first place. It seemed like the easy answer, and coming from Histoire, it seemed like the most viable and correct answer as well, yet somehow he hadn't come to such a simple conclusion himself. "Sometimes, I wonder how you do it, Mother. It sounds so simple, yet I'm not sure I know how to start." the boy said to his mother, flopping onto his back once more.

"Follow what your mind guides you to, I know it will be the right path," she explained, only to get no response for about three minutes. "I trust you will find your path properly." she concluded, slowly dozing off herself.

The chirps of nightly crickets and katydids filled the room with their song, as the small boy drifted into sleep with a peaceful smile adorning his face.

* * *

Jayden's eyes flitted open as light bled into the room. Histoire was already out in the lobby, talking to someone with blue hair, talking about trying to locate a store that sold Doc P, Jayden's favorite soda. Jayden walked out into the room, sauntering up next to a girl with lilac hair, taller than he was, and another girl shorter than the first, with darker hair at right of the first girl. Jayden looked at the two purple girls. They looked at him. He blinked twice. This was the first time he'd seen these people. "Histy..." the shorter girl said slowly. "Why is there a little person like you in the Basilicom?" she asked. Histoire floated over, putting the blue haired girl on hold for a moment, even though she was standing just across the counter.

"Right!, Well, today's the day so..." Histoire looked at Jayden. "Jayden, this is Neptune and Nepgear." Jayden's eyes filled with recognition, then he looked back at Histoire, inquiring quietly as to which was which. She pointed out the who was who and what the basic differences were. "I'll have to leave you to the Introductions, Jayden. I have to help this person." Histoire hurried back over to her desk. Jayden turned to the two and bowed.

"Lady Neptune, Lady Nepgear," He started formally, "My name is Jayden. I am Histoire's son and I am pleased to meet you both." He held out his hand and both girls shook it. He straightened out, trying to make himself appear taller. Both of these girls were taller than he was and that sort of bothered him, but as he usually did, Jayden kept it to himself. "This must be very confusing for you both, Let's sit down and have a chat. You must have questions." He gestured to on of the few tables dotted around the lobby. They had a seat and the questioning began.

"So who are you, exactly?" Nepgear asked first.

Jayden had to think about how to answer that question. "Okay, I'm Histoire's son, I'm a guild worker, and I like to think I'm something of an experienced person." Neptune stifled a laugh. "What?"

"Experienced?" she asked. "You look like you're ten." she was giggling while she said it.

"I'll have you know that I AM ten. Age has no definition of knowledge." Neptune couldn't stop laughing. Jayden deadpanned. He was getting rather good at that. Neptune regained her composure enough to ask more questions. "Okay, so where have you been these past ten years?" Jayden wasn't sure he had an answer to that. "How did Histoire keep a kid like you hidden from us for ten straight years?"

"Plot convenience..." Jayden muttered.

"What was that?" Nepgear asked. "I couldn't hear you clearly."

"You were usually out on guild quests when I was doing anything noteworthy." Jayden replied. "If you weren't on guild quests then I was, or we were both asleep." Nepgear nodded slowly. "Not to mention I haven't really done anything noteworthy so..." Neptune smiled.

"Well, that's alright, kiddo! You're hanging with Nep now! We'll turn you into the greatest hero Gamindustri's ever seen!" Neptune shouted, the grandeur going to her head.

Jayden though about that for a moment before looking back up at her. "Yeah, how about no?" Neptune looked at him in surprise. Her faced begged the question, 'why not?' "I don't really think of myself as a hero, nor will I really ever." he smiled. "But don't concern yourself with me," he stood up and offered his arms. "let's have a walk shall we? and tell me about yourselves." The violet goddesses took his arms and they strolled out the door.

"I know a great pudding place," Neptune said, "You'll love it I promise."

* * *

"What's a pudding?" Neptune asked. Jayden handed her one. She looked at it suspiciously. "It jiggles when you poke it." she noted. Then, she had a bite. She kept in in her mouth for a second, almost as if she weren't sure what to do with it. "Do I chew it?" she asked Jayden. He shook his head. After having swallowed it and taking another couple of bites Neptune handed it back to him, "Meh. I guess it's whatever, Jay-jay." Histoire ignored the scene which had just unfolded and now regarded Jayden directly.

"So what does this mean, Jayden?" she asked. Saturn agreed, she wasn't sure what all of that meant.

"Well, first off, that there's a time difference between where I cam from and here." he said. "I've checked the newspapers, not to mention that Neptune here," he pointed at Neptune, trying to figure out what, exactly, the pudding was composed of. "is a toddler, while the Neptune from my place..." he tried to think. his Neptune looked a lot like this one, just a bit bigger. "...is visually a bit older. If she's visually older, then there's obviously been a much bigger time gap than I had previously anticipated." He tried to consider the pudding cup for a moment. "I might have also come from another Gamindustri entirely." he noted. Histoire looked astonished.

"You mean to say that there are multiple Hyperdimensions?" she asked. "What makes you say this?"

Jayden pointed at Neptune again. "This Neptune doesn't like pudding. The Neptune from my dimension had an undying love for it." He tried to think about some other proof. "Also, you're still there in my dimension. Though you don't look too different. The differences should be much greater if it were only a time skip is what I'm saying, like in my dimension you'd look a LOT older probably." did Histoire get older? Probably. Even if she didn't there would have to be at least SOME semblance of a difference in age. If not... then how old was Histoire right now? Hmm... "Nonetheless, there was never any kind of share crash in Planeptune in my dimension, and I'm fairly certain that Neptune didn't have a mother." Histoire nodded slowly.

'Well," Saturn said, "did you remember anything else?"

At this, Jayden thought about whether or not the second thing was necessary. "Kind of?" Saturn leaned over the table, indicating that she was listening. "Okay, so..."

* * *

Jayden had just returned from doing quests, now at the age of thirteen. When he walking down the street, he walked past a girl with blue hair. She was the same one who was in the Basilicom three years prior, asking around for places to acquire soda. She smiled at him as she passed. Despite having been walking in the other direction, when Jayden got back home, the very same girl was waiting in one of the chairs. Histoire greeted him as he came in.

"Welcome home, sweetie!" she said, "MAGES. insisted that she talk to you before she went on her way, so why don't you have a chat with her?" Jayden nodded and had a seat across from the girl. She looked about seventeen or sixteen years old.\

" So you're MAGES. yes?" he asked. Best to open up a chat with a stranger by learning or re-familiarizing yourself with the person's name.

"That would be me. Do you know why I wanted to talk to you?" MAGES. asked outright.

"Before I answer that question, mind answering one of mine?" he asked back. She sat back and nodded, ready to feed him information. "Can I call you by another name? MAGES. seems a bit awkward, no?" She nodded again. "Does May work for you?" he asked.

"My sister used to call me May..." she noted. "Yes, this will do. You can call me May if it pleases you." He nodded.

"So I guess this is about being the 'Chosen One, right?" he joked. He'd overheard MAGES. talking to someone on her cell phone before about a chosen one. "You've got the same soul reading as I do. It could be possible that the 'chosen _one_ ' is really _two_." She smiled.

"Good to see you're on topic." she said. She pulled out her phone and made a call. "Yes it's me." she said. "No, this isn't about Doc P, that's not why I called. I've found one who can become a 'Tuner of Fate,' like myself. He's still too young, but in time, he may become a better tuner than myself or IF. This world will continue to interest me... Continue to research the tuners. There may be more to learn than we thought. _Loochs tneve emag noitamina cisum_." Jayden took a moment to reflect on that bit. ' _I'm fairly certain she just said 'Music Animation Game Event School' backwards, but I'm going to ignore that...'_ he thought to himself.

How did he respond to that? He decided to keep playing like he knew what he was doing. "A member of your organization I take it? Are they trustworthy?"

"Yes, how intuitive of you." she said, the smile still present on her face. "And yes, all of my members are as trustworthy as they come, so there is no need to fear."

"So I was right then. I suppose this means that the organization has finally moved?" he half asked, half said.

"Yes," she responded, the smile gone. "I'm afraid we no longer have time. However, meeting you here today was enough of a result. This is as fate has decided, I see."

"I would like to think so." he said. "Now then, do you have anything to hand to me to hold onto while we're here and we've got time?" MAGES. nodded. She pulled out a slab of a gemstone and a card.

"This gemstone will serve you one day to awaken your powers as a Tuner of Fate. There are several types of these, so keep looking. Just because it worked for me, does not mean it worked for you. This card has my contact information. Contact me as soon as you've made your first breakthrough." Suddenly, her phone went off. She giggled slightly, "Oh hey, looks like it's you." she said. She answered the phone. "May here. ... Yes? Yes. The Planeptune Basilicom you say? I'll be right there." she hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket. "See you soon, my junior tuner." she quickly pecked the top of Jayden's forehead and walked out. "Perhaps sooner than you think as well." and with that she was gone. Jayden had a headache now. Just trying to keep up with her thoughts and words was hard enough, let alone trying to hold a conversation with her.

* * *

"So do you still have these thing?" Histoire asked. "If you still have that Gemstone, then we may be able to awaken you right now." Jayden tried to think about that. It had been three, almost four years since that happened. He was sixteen now yet, he did still have that gemstone. He pulled it out now and also kept MAGES. contact card in his pocket, ready to contact her if this worked. He raised the stone into the air and held it there for a moment. It shined briefly, then dulled out. Jayden stood there for a moment, realizing it hadn't worked. Neptune frowned. "Try it again, maybe you have to do it multiple times?" He held up the gemstone again. This time it shattered and crumbled to the floor. Jayden just kind of looked at it. He tried to think if there might be anything else that would work, when all of a sudden he remembered chapter five. That Slab of Gemstone he bought... would that work? He pulled out the second slab. This one looked like a giant diamond, its luster outshining every last gem or glass in the Basilicom. He held this one up above himself. Light burst out of the crystal and surrounded his body. It hovered for a moment and time seemed to stop for 3... 2... 1... the light now burst outwards again and converged in on him, absorbing into his body, then the gemstone when dull and crumbled like the first, the pieces dissipating into dust and scattering away in nonexistent wind. Jayden didn't feel much different, but he figured that it would take time. Or maybe it didn't? If anyone would know, it would be MAGES. and now seemed like as good a time as any to give her a call. Surprisingly enough, she picked up.

"May here." she said casually as ever. Jayden explained the situation at hand, the asked if she was free. "Yes?" Suddenly that response felt a little too familiar. It was the same as when she'd answered the phone when she'd been talking to him before. He asked if that' where she actually was. "Yes." He told then told her where he was. "The Planeptune Basilicom you say? I'll be right there." Jayden hung up the phone, then counted to six and there was a knock at the door. Wow. Jayden opened the door, and she was already waiting. First thing she did when she stepped inside was greet Jayden and give him a kiss, this time on his cheek. Jaydenn blushed, but didn't reject it. MAGES. smiled and walked into the lobby with him, Jayden fully explaining the situation. "Well," she said, "As a tuner of fate, the future is yours to make." she smiled. "That means you can change the world to do whatever you want. You're stronger than I am, so even if we ever had conflicting opinions, which I doubt we would, yours would win out over mine." her smile grew warmer as she took both his hands in hers. "That makes us friends you and I. So get used to having me around!" Jayden now smiled back. He was happy to have a new companion. Her smile, however, seemed familiar. Its warmth and radiance... Its beauty... Its passionate affection. It was the same smile that Eryn had given him so many times. Now he could see it for real. He wanted to lean forward and kiss her, but he wasn't sure if it would be appropriate. MAGES. interrupted his thoughts. "So, I'm gonna spend this month with you and help you develop your powers okay?" Jayden looked at Histoire, who gave an approving nod. MAGES. held out her hand. "There is much for you to learn."

* * *

During the first week, it was mostly training. MAGES. would present a task every day, and by the end of the day, Jayden would have it done. By Wednesday, he was completing two tasks per day. By Friday, he had five tasks done before noon, but he stopped there. He no longer saw the point of the tasks. He'd been doing things that improved his physical strength such as climbing over something, moving things from one area to another, or swinging at a training dummy until it broke. It didn't seem like a task that a chosen 'Tuner of Fate' would be doing to train. It sounded like more of a magic thing. MAGES. explained that there would be more next week, but for the first one, he'd done pretty well.

During the second week, Jayden had much more fun. This was all about magic and speed. MAGES. would stand somewhere and Jayden would have to get to her, overcoming obstacles in the way. This was anything from making a bridge by levitating something so he could walk across it, to jumping over a building because it was in his way. He'd also blitzed through several enemies, the same enemies that gave him trouble before hardly taking any time now. When Wednesday came, she presented him with another task. He had to get from point A to point B before the gate in between closed. The only catch was that Point A and B were 20 yards apart and the gate closed as soon as MAGES. said go. He collapsed backwards after three hours, trying to figure out what to do. After another hour, he'd actually developed a new skill because he'd been trying so hard. The skill allowed him to focus his speed into a burst, basically allowing him to move double his speed before for a short amount of time. this new skill still proved ineffective in getting past the gate before it closed and had Jayden crashing into it multiple times. After the one-hundred and twenty sixth time, Jayden had reached the end of his patience. "Why are you wasting our time?" he asked all of a sudden, "Are you sure I'm a Tuner? You're not mistaken?" she shook her head. "What if I don't complete this one? I don't think I can do it." MAGES. picked him up off the ground and dusted off his knees. She gently kissed his cheek and smiled at him.

" _I'm quite confident_." she stated simply. Jayden paused for a moment. Something about the way she said it, maybe how it sounded, or what was behind it... he knew he could do it now. "You've gotten this far, no sense in giving up here, right? You told me that." Jayden paused.

"I did?" he asked. She nodded in response.

"You also told me that you weren't the kind of guy to give up. You're the kind of guy who keeps trying, even if there's no remainder of hope left." Jayden wasn't buying it. He'd gotten back most of his memories. He STILL didn't remember that.

"You sure?" he asked again. Now she seemed less sure, "I think I'd remember something like that. Actually, I'm SURE I'd remember that." Now she frowned.

"No, no. I'm sure of it, Kale." Now Jayden was even more confused. Who was Kale? Isn't that a vegetable? He tried to ask if she was okay, but she didn't seem like she was listening. Jayden tried to think about who Kale might be. His name wasn't even CLOSE to Kale. That is if Kale was even a person and not just a figment of her imagination. She frowned and looked at him, her hand across her mouth as if she were deep in thought.

"May..." he said slowly, "You just called me... Kale..." he said this slowly, trying not to run over any words that might trigger an unwanted result. "I'm Jayden... Is there... someone else here?" She shook her head, reassuring him that it was merely a mistake. He was moderately concerned, he had several questions that he wanted answers to, but he decided to ignore them for the time being and finish the task at hand. He stood back on point A and stared point B down. he was going to get there this time. This was the last time he'd have to do this. He'd also told himself this the previous few times, but now he meant it. When MAGES. said go, something really interesting happened. Jayden's eyes flashed blue for but a moment, then he simply kind of appeared at Point B, several afterimages showing the path he'd taken. MAGES.' eyes sparkled when she saw this.

"You did it!" she cried out and ran over to him. When she collided with him, her arms flew around him as she pressed her lips against his in absolute joy. Some part of Jayden told him to stop being sheepish and acting upon this, he did so, returning the kiss, leaning in and enjoying it to its fullest extent. He wasn't really sure how to do a kiss, he just knew that he wanted to right now. Under his closed eyelids, Jayden's eyes turned green, leaning into the kiss a little more. When they separated, Jayden felt as if he were only watching from the sidelines. Although, such a thing would normally requisite panic, Jayden simply sat back and watched to see what would happen. Suddenly he began to speak. The voice was his, but the words were not.

"You are not wrong," he said, "I am still here. All of us are. We're just not... whole anymore... you know?" MAGES. started to tear up, burying her face in Jayden's chest. Whoever was controlling Jayden wrapped his arms around her and held her close. "I'll be with you again someday. I promise you." he said. "Wait for me, won't you?" With that, Jayden's eyes reverted back to their swirling colours and he was left holding MAGES. and utterly confused. _I know I owe you an explanation._ that was the same guy as just now. What was he doing in Jayden's head. _I'll explain it eventually, but for now, I'll keep it short. I'm Kale, and I'm one of your alternate souls._ Jayden had no clue waht that meant, but it sounded really cool.

 _You say one of. Are there others?_ he could sense Kale nod. _Oh, I think I get it now, you're one of those alternate versions of me from other timelines, right?_ Kale confirmed this. _Okay... Whatever you were like in your timeline... May must really love you._

Kale sighed _Yes, we were lovers before I fell in battle. Unfortunately, I'm an archer, and when an ancient dragon closes in on you and a bow is all you've got, there's not much to be done._ duly noted...

 _I felt you take control before, You've got this tuner thing down better than I do, why don't you take control for now, and hand me back the reigns when you're done with May? I'll just like... Take a nap or something, I dunno how this works._ Jayden really didn't. This was something entirely new to him. Jayden felt himself distancing from his body once more. He was now in an over-the-shoulder kind of view on his body. Now this was interesting. The new white streak in his hair had turned green. Swiveling his view to the front, Jayden could see that his eyes were green too. _Do whatever catching up you need to do, just... try not to break me?_ Kale chuckled

 _That's right, you're new to this. We have separate stat pools. If I lose HP and you take back control, you have however much HP you had when I took control, possibly more if you had time to heal. It's weird how that works, it just kind of does._ Jayden tried to think about that for a moment.

 _So we're basically like a second life to each other?_ Jayden asked. He sensed Kale nod once more. _So if I get down to a critical status and I switch to you, I basically stasis myself and give myself more time to heal._

 _Precisely._

 _THAT'S SO COOL, THOUGH._

Jayden separated himself from his body entirely, his vision closing out. It was like going to sleep.

* * *

Kale stretched. It had been a while since he'd had a physical form. He looked at MAGES. her face lighting up.

"I'm so glad it's really you... I thought..." he pressed a finger against her lips, cutting her off.

"Emo trash, May," he said bluntly, "Forget that. I'm here now. So let's just roll with it, right?" MAGES. giggled and took his hand. Kale could hear one last mental note from Jayden. _Take a day or two man, I think you deserve this. Catch back up with her, have some fun._ He took her hand and lead her off, plenty of time still remaining in the day. He planned to use it to make up for lost time.

* * *

Kale, walked down the sidewalk, MAGES. strolling beside him, their hands interlocked, both of them lightly blushing. After having spent the rest of the day and a second day after the first together, hunting monsters, having the other's back, and just generally having good times, they felt like They had finally caught up. Kale suddenly spoke.

"You know..." he started, "I don't think I ever officially proposed to you that I'm madly in love with you." he said. She looked at him, blushing deeper than before.

"I suppose now's a good a time as any. Beside, Madness is just kind of what we do, right?" He smiled, and chuckled to himself, looking to the side at the girl he so dearly loved. He pulled her close and pressed his lips against hers, making sure to pour every last possible particle of affection he had into the kiss. When he pulled back, her face was entirely red and she looked slightly disorientated.

"The light may set over the horizon, and the moon may block out the sun, but..." he pulled her even closer, their noses touching. "Nothing will ever block out my love for you, May. My love for you will continue to shine until they drag me into Hell, and even then, it will shine on." MAGES. giggled a bit at this.

"When they drag you into Hell, I probably won't be far behind." Kale pretended to be offended.

"Oh... whatever," he huffed a bit, "you know what I meant." she smiled.

"Okay, My turn..." They separated, only for her to take both his hands in hers and look into his eyes, staring deeply. "I honestly think we both enjoyed today quite a bit more than we would have enjoyed it without the other, and that leaves me to believe that we should spend more time together." she blushed a little brighter, "I know I've never told you this before, but it almost feels as though I could walk the path of madness with you... I've seen the way you act, the way you think, the way you fight, and how you move move, and how you are... I love it all..." She stared into his eyes and waited for a response. Kale took a moment to form one, MAGES. had almost essentially proposed to him right here. He wanted to get this just right.

"May," he started, "I would love to." a similar smile crossed his own face to match hers, " I'd like to help you with all your experiments, I think it would be cool to help each other and..." he wanted this next part to sound as romantic as possible. "The path of madness, or science, or magic, or whatever may be in between... I'd gladly walk it so long as I could walk it next to you."

[Jayden and MAGES. learned Madness Barrage!]

"Not the first time we've learned one of those weird abilities," he noted, "But... I think I might like this one..." He gazed into her eyes and sighed contently.

"It seems the system is blessing us." MAGES. said, "we're partners now, comrades of madness." she happily gazed back into his eyes in return, slowly wrapping her arms around him. "I look forward to being with you..."

Kale reciprocated her hug. "Same here. Though, I kind of wish it would differentiate between him and I somehow... forget about that for now though." And with that, she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his, his lips pressing back and both of them enjoying the other's embrace. When they pulled apart MAGES. looked lustfully into his eyes again.

"I knew I always loved kissing him for a reason." she said, "Now I know it's because you were in there." she sighed slightly. "Hey, let me take you with me..." she said. "I know you're acting as an alternate soul right now, so if I can find something to get you in, I can take you with me. Kale was a bit on edge about that, but eventually decided she was right.

"Let's just let him know about that, alright?" Kale silently had a chat with Jayden, Jayden noting that Kale was technically his own person and he didn't need his permission to go places. "Thanks Jay..." he focused his energy. _Hey, Jayden, can you summon Zhengyi yet?_ Jayden noted that he couldn't. He wasn't even aware that was a feature. "Stand back." he told MAGES. who quickly followed the command. _Then we'll do this together. Take back control._ Jayden did so, his hair streak returning to white, his eyes cycling through the colours again. _Now, follow me lead._ He raised one arm into the air, and with a brilliant flash of light, there was Zhen in his hand. He look at Zhen as if he couldn't believe it for a moment, then pulled both triggers. With both blades active, he raised the sword into the air and slammed the blade into the earth, energy bursting forth. The energy settled around Jayden, making a loose outline of him, then shifting directly right, the loose outline slowly solidifying. When it was done, a boy, just slightly taller than Jayden, stood, smiling. His hair was green and his hair was blonde, yet his clothes were drastically different than the ones Jayden was wearing.

He was dressed in mainly green clothing, a small shield adorning the back of his right arm, a bow slung over his shoulder. His boots were interesting looking and bore a crest that looked very familiar. After looking at him for a while, Jayden concluded two things. The first thing he concluded was that this boy was definitely Kale. Wow, Kale was a handsome son of a gun. Second thing was that Kale looked like a male version of Vert. The crests on his boots were even Leanbox symbols. Kale chuckled a bit, "Well, before you ask, the look on your face tells me you're about to, yes, I am dress in Leanbox gear for a reason. That reason being that, in my timeline, I'm actually the CPU candidate of Leanbox." Jayden was taken aback by this. There was a timeline where he was the CPU candidate of Leanbox, huh? That would have made for a drastically different story. Nonetheless, Jayden knew what this meant. He and Kale were about to part ways. He bowed to Kale and smiled as he said goodbye. Though he only knew Kale for a short time, it felt like he was saying goodbye to a good friend. Suddenly, Jayden realized that that was kind of narcissistic, seeing as that was only because Kale was actually himself. As Kale walked off, Jayden walked back to the Basilicom.

MAGES. had informed him that the final challenge was the gate and he'd conquered it much faster than he'd been intended to. She'd also noted that it should have drained his stamina to the point of not really being able to do anything else, yet for whatever reason, it hadn't drained his stamina at all. Matter of fact, it felt like he was standing still and simply phazing from one point to the other. He later decided to call this skill **Afterimage Phasing** due to how it worked and how it looked. With a bit of focus, Jayden found himself phasing all over Planeptune. The speed he moved while phasing, was quite the bit faster than the speed burst, but the phasing took quite a bit of focus to do and he had to be prepared to do it. The burst could be performed on a moment's notice, so that was to be expected. before long, he was standing by the doors of the Basilicom again. He sighed. The exciting part of this adventure seemed to be mostly over... he tried to note that anything could happen as he uttered a phrase to keep himself going, attempting to motivate himself with words.

 **"** **Tomorrow is another day.** **"**

* * *

 **A/N: Hey, This chapter's finally done! I wanted to upload it SO much sooner, that just kind of didn't happen. Phoo. Anyway, the Next Chapter should hopefully come a bit quicker, it depends on whether or not I have to go camping this weekend. It also depends on how willing Jayden is going to be in helping be shovel out the street around the Basilicom. If he doesn't help me that'll mainly be left to me. Luckily for me, I still have my backup Airbrush ring (no, I didn't forget about that.) so I can probably just use Infinity Flame 6 or something to get rid of the snow. Maybe I can get IF to use Demon Flames. Maybe that'll work. It depends on how desperate I might have to get. Anyway, If you're hoping things will make sense soon, then that's what next chapter is for. If you don't understand something after next chapter, then post a comment or PM me with your question, if I can answer it without spoiling anything for you, then I will do my best to answer it.**

 **Have a lovely day. I'm gonna go wrangle some slimes now.**


	12. Journal Entries

**A/N: Okay, so this chapter isn't NEARLY as long as the last one. That was almost 7,500 words, and if I want to do something like that then each chapter's gonna take me like a week or two. This chapter is roughly half of that length. Let me know with a comment which length you prefer, just take into account the time it will take to make either.**

 **Also, a friend of mine asked me how many story arcs this is going to have. The short answer is: I don't know. The explanation Answer is that I have Six Arcs currently planned, but a LOT of my stories tend to change as I write them. We're still in Arc one here, let's take it as it goes.**

 **Also, for those of you who are still waiting on Saturn's description, wait no longer, it is in this chapter. It also become kind of Obsolete, but we'll ignore that for the time being.**

* * *

Jayden was sitting in the Basilicom lobby as he normally was when starting a chapter. It's almost like how a certain **Green Clad hero** always wound up back in his house when the player restarted the game in which he played a **blue wooden flute** , but I digress. As usual, Jayden sat there until something requited his attention. The thing that drew his attention this time was a sound. Unlike the assault of static he'd experienced, this one did indeed have a pitch and was a small sound, almost like that of a mouse. He looked around for the source, but was unable to find it. The noise had stopped. Jayden now closed his eyes and focused all of his energy into trying to find the noise when it started again. When the tiny noise returned, he stood and walked, with his eyes closed, around everything, narrowly avoiding things in his path and eventually coming to a room in the Basilicom that he'd been in many times before. It was Neptune's room, and she often took him there whenever she wanted to play. Jayden also periodically poked his head in to check on her. He did so now and sat behind her, listening to what she was doing.

"Ne-Pu! Ne-Pu! Ne-Pu! Ne-pu! Nepu! Nepu! Nepu! NePUU!" Jayden chuckled a bit. What the hell was that? She was playing with tiny blocks and stacking them together as she basically squeaked out a part of her name. She started again before Jayden realized what she was actually doing. "Nepu, nepu, neeep, nep pu puuu! Nepu, nepu-nepu, nep pu puuu!" The little girl was doing something akin to singing, but Jayden had no idea what the fuck those lyrics were. It was absolutely adorable and terribly confusing at the same time. However, Jayden had just come to understand that, it was just how Neptune kind of worked, or was just how she was. The tiny girl turned to him and gave him a hug. He pulled her in close, hugging back. He knew he wouldn't have it any other way. He knew, however, that Neptune wouldn't be this way forever. He wondered whether he would ever remember these kinds of things years from now. Such a thought gave way to questioning the integrity of his memory, and before he knew it, Jayden was writing a journal to keep track of things.

* * *

 **Year Four**

I'm keeping a journal now, But I'm starting on year four. That's how old Neptune is. I can only hope I'll be around long enough to catch everything. I'm not a god. I'm not a CPU. I'm not immortal. I may only have a few years left even. I'm afraid that it won't be enough. I have no idea how long Mirror Synths live for. Even so, I cannot give up before I begin. The next time I write, I will notate the year and anything notable. I will only be doing this once a year, and when I do so no longer, I will give this to Neptune. I believe that she will outlive me, being a goddess as she is. So... Neptune. If you're reading this, I'm sorry I wasn't able to say goodbye. I'll be damned if you have to watch me die. I can only hope that being a mirror synth will help me live long enough to be with you for as long as you need me, but there may come a day when even that will be too much. Neptune. Just know that I love you. No matter what happens.

* * *

 **Year Five**

Something interesting has happened. I do not plan to write one of these if nothing noteworthy happens during the year, but something has. When I wrote my last journal, I was seventeen. Now I am eighteen. These years document the length of my existence, not the age of my physical body. I learned that they are, indeed, different. Though it may seem impossibly convenient, my body may have stopped aging. I'm not sure yet as it has only been a year, but I've stopped growing at five feet tall and I've not yet sprouted a single facial hair. It's possible that I may simply be a late bloomer or whatever the hell they call it but, if I actually have stopped aging then that means I have more time to use to spend with my family. Thank the True Goddess for that...

Neptune has not changed much either. She's about an inch or so taller than my last journal, but it's not much of a difference. She still looks like the same adorable toddler that she's always been.

* * *

 **Year Ten**

It's definite now. I'm definitely not aging anymore. I've not had any facial hair, nor have I gotten any taller, nor have I physically changed at all. I've some to a conclusion that my status as a Tuner of Fate, combined with my natural skills as a Mirror Synth, allow me to mimic more than just actions. I've probably taken this property from Saturn or Neptune. So it's not that Neptune isn't going to age at all, it's that there's an age cap. My age cap was somewhere about fifteen, sixteen, maybe seventeen to really push it. I wonder what Neptune's age cap is?

Whatever it is, she hasn't hit it yet. She's not growing as quickly as a human, but the growth is definitely there. She looks like the Neptune from my dimension now. She's also picked playing a flute in her spare time. I've been using my Tuner skills to give her something to play with. I'm not sure I fully understand the Tuner skills. A lot of them are really interesting skills that don't seem like I should have. For example, when MAGES. taught me how to use the Afterimage Phase. Afterimage Phasing seems like it was made for another character entirely. What Am I doing with it? Getting back to Neptune, she's quite good with that flute. I wonder what would happen if I attempted to teach the Neptune from my dimension how to play one? I'm not sure. I don't think it would work, they're two different people. I have to keep reminding myself that. This Neptune isn't the one I'm used to. I wonder if I'll ever get to see my Neptune again? More so...

I wonder if I'll ever get to see my mother again.

As of right now, I don't think so. I can hang on to hope all I want, but the only person I know who can travel between dimensions is MAGES. Furthermore, I don't want to abandon this dimension either. I'm starting to question whether or not getting those memories back was a good thing. Those memories are tearing me apart. I don't know what I want anymore. I have a family there that I want to get back to, but all the same, I have a new family here. I don't know what to call my home anymore. Is anywhere my home? Home is supposed to be where the heart is, or where your family is, but where is that for me, now?

* * *

 **Year 13**

Three years ago I started thinking about where my family and home are. I realize now that they aren't anywhere. These families that I lay claim to aren't mine. Neither of them are. I'm not even sure I can call these people my friends. They all treat me so nicely, MAGES., Saturn, Histoire, and Neptune most of all. But I don't think it's me that they know. I don't think it's me that they're being nice to. It's someone else they know. Someone inside me. Someones even.

It's them.

* * *

 **Year 14**

Who are they? They speak to me and no one else hears them. Am I going insane? Is my brain creating something like Eryn again, where they do not actually exist? Or is it something more? It has to be something more. They speak like they know what's going on, like they know what's going to happen. Not only can they predict where people are going to be, what they're going to do, and when they're going to do so, they can also predict things that are happening to me.

I must be going crazy. I can only hope I manage to find a remedy before it is too late. This started last year. If it's only been a year then surely I must be able to find something. I hope I am not too late.

* * *

 **Year 15**

I have stopped trying to remedy them. I think they might be alternate souls like Kale was. Either way, they don't seem malicious or harmful, it's probably more helpful, logical, and otherwise the better option to have them with me. This way I'm told certain things are going to happen before they do. I'm slowly learning their names, too. The one who talks to me the most, his name is Cavort. He taught me a few different things I can do with Zhen. Turns out that Zhen also has a hidden button the bottom of the hilt that locks the triggers in place, this way I can also swing and spin Zhen without having to worry about letting go of his triggers and re-sheathing the blades on accident. He also told me that Zhen is willing to change forms to help me. Cavort said he'd help me more tomorrow.

It's been a little too long since I last updated on Neptune since I was Emo-ing and/or slightly crazy from all these voices/souls talking to me. Neptune actually looks different. She's changed her hoodie dress to a different kind of hoodie shirt that ends just above her waist. She also has on a skirt-dress underneath that's a darker shade of purple. I kind of like her new outfit, it really emphasizes how adorable she is. Maybe I should find a better word, Neptune doesn't seem much younger than me now, and It's possible that she might wind up looking a little older even. I'm not sure whether or not I'm okay with that. If Neptune winds up taller than I am, I will be rather upset. I think I forgot to mention this before, but I'm Five feet tall now. Exactly five feet. No taller. I'm starting to think this is just insulting.

 **Year 15** - _Day Two_.

So, today Cavort showed me something really cool. I was out in the courtyard training and Cavort asked me if I'd like to be able to jump up really high, like over the Basilicom levels of high, without having to use a burst of magic to elevate myself. I can run pretty fast on my own, but jumping isn't one of my strong points. Back in Chapter six I almost expended all of my strength trying to jump onto that dragon. Shadow soul is MUCH better at jumping that I am. But today, Cavort told me to just call on him to activate Jump Boost. When I asked him to do so, something subtly changed within me. I wasn't sure what it was, but when I showed Neptune later she said that My eyes stopped cycling through colours and turned blue. Nonetheless, with this blue eye flash, I jumped up and I shot about twenty feet straight up in the air without even trying. I asked Cavort if I could try it again, and this time, with a bit of a running start I managed to jump up so high that I was halfway to the lower clouds! I told Cavort not to exhaust himself, but he said that this kind of thing was hardly difficult for him at all. I'll have to keep an eye out for any areas I couldn't access before because I couldn't jump high enough. Cavort also says that there are several skills he can lend me.

When I asked him if Afterimage Phasing was something of his, he seemed to know what I was talking about, but admitted that the skill wasn't his. That must mean that some of my other alternate souls can also lend me skills.

* * *

 **Year 17**

Neptune is just as tall as I am now. What's more is she's always by me. I just picked up on it the other day, but Neptune stays by my side, no matter what I'm doing, unless one of us requires privacy. Even when I go out on guild quests, she insists on accompanying me. I haven't seen her transform yet, but Neptune is a pretty viable fighter on her own. Nonetheless, even as I write this now, Neptune is leaning on my shoulder, playing her flute. I'm starting to wonder if the reason she has for staying by me is more than just being my friend. It's not that I don't want her around, I enjoy spending time with her as well. Even after all these years, Neptune is still my best friend, and I doubt anything could change that.

.

..

...

Gods, listen to me... I sound like... like... hmm. I wonder. No, that's not possible. At least I don't think so. I'll keep my head focused now. Other noteworthy things is that Cavort taught me some other skills he could lend me such as temporary shields and buffs. I think Cavort is a little too energetic for his own good though. He's like a little kid and always wants to do something. As I'm typing this, Cavort is complaining about not being able to do anything and being bored. Something else I've noted is that Cavort is unable to take control of me. Be it whether I've been resisting him or something, I've not yet noticed any time, when Cavort's awake, that he can take control. I'll have to see later if Cavort can actually do anything short of lending me skills.

* * *

Year 24

Neptune is absolutely inseparable from me now. She's always with me, accompanying me to go shopping, or questing, or even just going somewhere to enjoy each other's company. Speaking of Nep, she also looks quite the bit different now. She's changed her outfit again, and returned to the hoodie dress, but this one is black and has red lines instead of her old lilac and purple one. She's also... taller than I am. It's by three inches maybe, but that doesn't bother me much anymore. She let her hair grow out longer, still in it's signature mess up on top of her head, but now she has longer hair flowing down, outlining her face, coming down to her hips. She's also told me that her, *ahem* proportions have changed. I haven't noticed. I'm not one to pay attention to these kinds of things. I have, however noticed that Neptune no longer fits the description of adorable. Rather now, she looks very pretty. I'd even call her beautiful. Especially her lovely violet eyes... Er... because... Violet is my favorite colour, you know? Hagh... nevermind. I can't even kind myself anymore.

True goddess help me... I think I'm falling in love with Neptune.

(Line)

Year 36

I guess this is happening now... I'm not sure how it happened, we're almost polar opposite here. I can't think of much we have in common, yet somehow we've fallen for each other. I guess it's not much of a love story, there was no dramatic proposal, I just realized it one day and started to accept it. I suppose I should make some attempt at confessing to her. I'll try that tomorrow and see how it goes.

Also noteworthy, I think Neptune's hit her age cap. Neither of us have gotten any taller, nor have we physically changed since my last entry. I think we're done.

Year 36 - Day 2

With some semblance of confidence, I managed to come up with some way to confess to Neptune. It took a little longer than I expected, mainly because I had to find someway to plan without her finding out when she mainly doesn't leave my side in the first place. After having come up with the Idea, I decided to play it into action. I posted a false guild quest in the office, the reward being a mysterious note. When Neptune and I went in later, I made sure to point it out and she liked the idea of it. Curiosity got the better of her and we decided together that we were going to do that one. After completing it and collecting the note, I handed it to Neptune so she could look at it first. The note was actually just something I'd made. I took a small piece of paper, cut up the edges, the rubbed them a bit with a burned cork to make it look older than it was. Then I'd written 'I love you, Neptune!' on it with a small picture of a smiling heart. When she opened it up, she was a little more than surprised to see what was written on it, and when I told her that I was the one who'd written it, she flung her arms around me and pressed her lips against mine.

My head is still spinning. I don't think I could be any more joyous.

* * *

 **Year 37**

Leave it to the world to take away your happiness just as soon as you acquired it.

Today, Planeptune was attacked by some other nation. I'd never seen them before. Their colour was Grey, not white or black, but grey. They had weapons I'd never seen before, stuff like plasma cutters and laser rifles, things you'd only expect from a movie. It took the military, plus the four of us, Histoire, Saturn, Neptune, and Myself to drive them back. After we'd driven the main army back, we thought it was over, but it wasn't. We were attacked by CPUs. Three to be exact. I couldn't quite catch their features, only that one was a smaller girl, another was a boy about my age, and there was yet another older CPU, another female. I'd remembered this though, I think the smaller ones were CPU candidates. Saturn handled the older girl, Neptune the smaller girl, Histoire went back to the Basilicom to note the damages, and I took the boy. He was good, wielding a scythe that seemed too big to hold with one hand, yet he did. Luckily for me, my two shields were enough to keep up. After a while, I realized that I wasn't ending this anytime soon if I didn't transform. After doing so, it didn't take long to knock him out. I checked on Neptune, she was doing just fine, even without an HDD state. Then I checked on Saturn. I wish I'd checked on her first.

I looked over just in time to see the blade pass through her stomach.

I heard Neptune scream, a beam of light bursting forth, giving way to Neptune's HDD form. It was only now that I realized where I had seen Saturn before. Saturn's human form was the exact same as Neptune's HDD, they even had the same voice.

With one swing, she knocked out the smaller girl and charged the older one. I ran to check on Saturn. She told me it was too late, that sword was a Dark-Sharicite Blade, in other words, it was like running through a normal person with a poisoned blade. I didn't have a sharicite on me, and there wasn't enough time to run and get one. She told me, to make sure that Neptune would have a guide throughout life, to make sure she stayed on the right path, and didn't wind up like the CPUs we were just fighting. I nodded, but I wasn't sure how I was going to do that. There would be time for that later though, at the moment, I had to make sure Neptune didn't die.

Rage alone wasn't going to get Neptune through a fight like this. I charged upwards right before the CPU took a swing, the bashed the blade before he could take the swing. I checked on Neptune. Seeing as this was her first transformation, she was already tired. I told her to get Saturn back to the Basilicom, and that I would handle her. She told me that I'd better give that CPU what they deserved. At that point,

It went without saying.

I tried to figure out how I was going to do this. That CPU could fly and I couldn't, so how was this going to work? I just didn't know. I'd only been able to down the boy because he'd been repeatedly charging me like a brash idiot. The CPU charged at me, and I only just barely managed to block the blow, not having enough time to counter. This continued for almost thirty minutes, and I could feel my stamina running down. The CPU then took another charge and actually cut through my right arm shield this time. I'd have to fix it later. But now, only one shield wasn't enough to keep up with this CPU, she was too fast. I wasn't nearly as fast. I was out of options. I couldn't handle this fight alone.

With no where to run, and only misery ahead even if I did, I had nothing left to do. I called out for help.

And someone answered.

* * *

 **A/N: THE CLIFFHANGER IS REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!**

 **But nonetheless, important things to note:  
-That Nation is not based off of one around . I just came up with the Idea. It's not just a toss out idea though, It'll probably show up again sooner or later.  
-That singing thing that Neptune was doing in the beginning of the Chapter is an actual thing. If you look up Nepu nepu nepu on youtube, you should find it.  
-Next Chapter opens with a fight scene. Brace yourself, Mind blowing stuff is Coming.  
-It's snowy as hell outside, so I may occasionally lose power this week. I just felt like noting that, it has nothing to do with you. But yeah, there's like 30 inches of snow on my road and it's kind of amazing. Better late than Never I suppose.  
-This whole Journal style writing is just a running Idea. Not sure if I'll ever use it again. Maybe I won't, I dunno, let me know what you think in the comments.**


	13. Waiting

**A/N: This is a Joke chapter and a stab at my own uploading schedule. It doesn't have much to do with the storyline, and you'll probably pick up what you miss if you skip this one.**

* * *

I sat at my computer, my hands furiously flying back and forth across the keys. Jayden sat in a chair, just a ways across the room. He was playing on his 3DS and I had bought him Fire Emblem Awakening. **[3DS and Fire Emblem series property of Nintendo]** I think he was having a bit too much fun with his pairings. Not that I'm one to speak of course, but I'll refrain from going into details: after all, this is not a crossover fic. Nonetheless, I was writing the next chapter for paradox, debating whether I wanted an outside person to answer Jayden's call for help at the end of the last chapter, or if I wanted to throw in a plot twist. I decided to go for the plot twist. After a while, I heard the 3DS hit the table and Jayden was right behind me as my fingers continued to hammer keys and the space bar. After a minute or two of silent observation, Jayden spoke up.

"Sooo..." I already knew what was on his mind. "When is this going to be finished? I though you said you were going to upload this last weekend?"

I sighed. He was kind of right. That was my original plan, but after buying Halo 5 **[Property of 343 Industries]** and getting some Steam money, then proceeding to actually buy the Neptunia games and **_BULLET HEAVEN 2_ [Property of Matt Rozak **_(like, actually my favorite game dev...)_ **]** AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH THE FANBOYING BEGINS, wait no. Not a crossover fic. Damn! I'd also discovered Terraria Patcher for Terraria **[Property of Re-Logic]** and the magic of a Stardust Dragon that was 100 units long was a little too much of a distraction for me to focus.

"I'm sorry, buddy" I told him apologetically. "That _was_ my original plan, but I got distracted, you know me." he sighed in return. I picked my mug of hot chocolate and offered it to him. He took it and had a sip. And in case you're wondering, no I don't mind sharing a cup with him, he's basically like a brother or a son to me. As my fingers returned to hammering across the keyboard, Noire walked in and sat next to me on my right. I smiled over at her. Jayden didn't understand.

"Um..." I could already see the confusion on his face.

"This is Noire, Jay." I told him. Suddenly his face filled with recognition. Granted, he was wrong, but I wanted to see how this would go. As I revivified myself on writing the rest of the chapter without getting distracted. Jayden was fanboying, Black Heart was his favorite goddess. "Wrong Noire, Jay," I explained to him, "That Noire is not a CPU, she's a friend of mine." I could practically see the steam shooting out of his ears. "Don't think about it too hard, bro, you might hurt yourself."

I continued to type determined to finish this chapter. I knew I could do it, I just had to get it done.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so-**

* * *

"WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT!" It was Jayden.

What'd he want now? I was just about to do the end slate... "What?" I responded super casually.

"Wasn't I in a battle sequence with that Crazy CPU guy? How'd I get here?" he asked.

"Uh..." I didn't have a response to that. "I have no idea, so before I look stupider than I already do, Noire! End the Chapter!"


	14. The Seal

**A/N: This took way longer than I wanted it to... I was told by a friend that they think I'm killing characters too quickly, to which my response was, "Maybe, but this is my first time doing this, so all we've got to work with is what I put out and hope that people will like." Honestly, I'm not a professional, I won't claim to be, probably won't ever be, though it would be cool, but I just don't have the brains for it. That's why sites like this are so cool, where I can post my work and get feedback from wonderful folk like yourselves! And for that, I thank you all!** **The bulk of my notes are going to be at the bottom, so I've kept you waiting over a week now,**

 ** _Let's just get to the point_.**

* * *

Energy surged through Jayden's body, his hair streak flashed and turned red, his eyes stopped cycling and remained the same colour. He felt the same backseat feeling as when Kale had taken him over, his view slowly shifting to over the shoulder. His body gave a chuckle.

"I was wondering when you'd finally call," the voice said. Jayden recognized its tone. _'You've gotta be kidding me...'_ "Nope,  you're only kidding yourself, bro." Cavort had taken control. Jayden was curious now, he'd needed help before, but Cavort was essentially a more experienced version of him. Cavort held out his hand and Zhen slowly materialized in a scanning motion of pixels. Cavort gave it a swing in a figure eight motion, and when he was done, Zhen had shifted to a Sonic Silver Shortsword, the energy part becoming a round shield. This was interesting though, Cavort held the sword in his right hand while keeping the shield forward in his left. So Cavort was right-handed? Jayden was mostly ambidextrous. Mainly he ate with his left hand and wrote thing with his right, yet for everything else, either hand sufficed. Then, to his astonishment once more, Cavort slowly lifted off the ground, smiling wide. "Alright buddy, Judgement time." he told the opposing CPU. She charged to no avail due to Cavort's shield, not even knocking him back. The CPU slashed all out with her sword, attempting to cut the shield and break it, but Cavort was prepared for this. He bashed the blade back, knocking the CPU off balance then spinning and cutting across her torso. It didn't do much damage. "Shoot... this might be more your thing Absence."

 _'Absence? Who's-?'_

' _If you say so, Cavy._ ' Another voice. This one was much deeper than both his and Cavort's, and still seemed calm in this situation. "Let me provide you with some time to switch in, we all know you don't take hits well." ' _Well said, Cavy. Give me a few minutes or so, it's been a while since I've had any of this goin' on._ ' "If you say so, Ab." Cavort's eyes shifted to blue as he hit the ground, then shot straight up at the CPU, driving his blade through her guard, shattering her guard meter in one hit. ' _Oh, I think you got this, Cavy_.' Absence said nonchalantly, ' _you handle this, I think you got it.'_ "Oh sure..." he responded, "Just leave it to me then..." Jayden wasn't sure what to do. Now there were TWO souls chatting in his head? More so, they made it sound like there were more than just the two of them. What the hell was this?! Cavort threw the shield, knocking the CPU's sword out of the way then charging and kicking the CPU back with both legs. Now the CPU took to the air, but Cavort was more than prepared. His eyes changed back to red as he rushed up at the CPU through the air. Now Jayden was even more confused, flight wasn't one of his abilities normally but, Cavort seemed to have no trouble using it. Cavort now floated in the same spot, clashing blades with the CPU, parrying, countering, getting countered, and swinging and slashing faster than was easily visible. Cavort was seemingly handling it well enough until the CPU jumped back and hit the ground. The CPU waved her arms above her head a few times, making a very particular and peculiar motion. When she was done, a beam of light, similar to the HDD transformation, and when she was revealed again, she had changed once more.

"Let's see if you can keep up with my **CGU** form!" the CPU said. _'The hell's a CGU?'_ Jayden asked. Absence responded: _'I've only seen this once before, really. I imagine it's easier than it looks, we just haven't been paying attention.' 'That's fair, I can't say I've been paying much attention to anything either.' 'Now's not the time to be admitting our flaws. I don't think that was anything to be proud of.'_ Jayden sighed. While no one was paying attention, the CGU charged and knocked Cavort flat in one shot. Damn those action story tropes! The CGU was ready to finish Cavort when the next unexpected thing happened. A bolt pierced through the air, nailing the CGU in the face. She stumbled backwards, blood dripping from her forehead when she glared back up. Turning around revealed a boy and a girl. The boy had green hair, the girl with blue.

"Wait, what the fuck?" Cavort blurted out, "Didn't you leave two chapters ago, Kale? How and why'd you get back here so fast?" Kale's face went blank.

"Uuuuhhh..." He looked first over at MAGES., then down at his hands, then back up at Cavort. "You know, that is an excellent question..." Almost as if they were having a staring contest, the two sat staring each other until Kale blinked. "I don't know." 'Well, he's still an idiot,' Jayden noted, 'But I'm glad he's here.'

Cavort interrupted them. "So my health is almost gone, can someone take over?" that lead to a pause. 'Anyone got any ideas?' Absence asked. 'Aight, hold up. I got this." Jayden retook control, Zhen shifting back to its titan blade form and its blades retracting into the hilt, his hair and eyes turning back to normal.

"Alright, is everyone ready for this plan?" No one raised any objections. "Aight... So her health is down, thanks to Kale's epic sniper skills..." Kale gave a thumbs up and an epic hair flip, "Now we just need one solid hit to finish this, so..." The tension jumped up about one-hundred fold. "Hold on, now that I think about this, didn't we totally brush off that whole 'CGU thing?' I mean that seems like a pretty important mechanic, I imagine that if we leave that unchecked that we might bite it later." Jayden could feel Absence facepalm.

"Jayden! Stay on task!" MAGES. shouted out to him.

"What task? what could possibly be more important right now?" he asked in response. Kale seemed to have lost his patience.

"Jayden, There's a fucking CPU/CGU whatthefuckever person over there who wants to kill us! Not to mention, she killed Saturn! There are a lot more pressing matters at the moment!" Jayden didn't seem ready to accept that.

"Shouldn't we be putting more thought into this though? That seems really important."

" ** _JUST FINISH THE DAMN FIGHT SCENE!_** " everyone yelled in unison.

"You don't have to yell at me... geez..." he received no sympathy. "Aight fine, you know what? I'm just gonna kick her."

'what?' That was Absence.

"I'm just gonna kick her, that should work." No one backed him up on that.

Kale finally broke the silence. "That is a terrible idea."

"Too bad!" he yelled back, "I'm doing it anyway! HGRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

 **(If you feel like it, playing the footloose theme, or the Benny Hills theme, for effect here actually made me crack up laughing multiple times. A slightly sped up version of Running in the 90s should also suffice.)**

Jaden charged the CGU, straight at her, ignoring all other distractions. In an attempt to stop him, she swung her sword, releasing a wave of energy which Jayden simply jumped over. When the CGU fired more slashing waves, Jayden had the same response, this time bounding around, dodging each wave by a fraction of an inch, occasionally spinning in midair and even just barely dancing off the tips of the waves. The CGU, realizing that this was not working, now pulled out a rifle and began to fire at him, energy bullets barreling towards him. By running around things and over walls and rubble, Jayden dodged every last bullet, then punched the last bullet dead-on. At first, it looked like this was pointless, until you processed exactly what that did. The bullet was countered by the punch, because toss all logic out the window, this is a Neptunia game/fic, flying back into the rifle's barrel, jamming the gun. Jayden rushed down the girl, now unhindered, jumping past her on the side at her left, then spinning over in midair and kicking her in the back of the head. The CGU laid on the ground for a moment, seemingly defeated, before picking herself up. Jayden glared at her. "Get the fuck out of my Nation, Bitch." before she could question why he didn't kill her he added, "Before I change my mind." and grabbing the other two, then retreating.

'Wow,' Cavort interjected, ruining the moment, 'that was kinda cool of you.'

"Oh my True Goddess, you actually just kicked her," Kale said, dumbfounded.

"Threat Eliminated!" Jayden said, throwing his hands in the air.

 _'Alright hold on,'_ Absence now interjected, ' _I was fine with the whole being an alternate soul thing. I was fine with the whole transforming sword thing. I was fine with Kale showing up outta nowhere, then shrugging it off like it was normal. I was even fine with throwing all mannerisms of seriousness and most forms of logic out the window for a bit. But that? That was just fuckin' stupid._ ' MAGES. turned to Kale.

"Guess I'll see you later." she said and kissed him on the cheek before disappearing into thin air. Jayden chuckled and crossed his arms.

"Looks like we got ourselves a lady's man over here," he said sarcastically, "what did you even do while you were gone?"

"Aight look, first off? We were just catching up. It's been a while and I was kinda dead for a while." Jayden nodded.

"True, true... I'll give you that."

"And second," Kale gave a devious smile, "You're one to talk with Neptune~." Jayden threw his hands in the air.

"How the hell did you know about that?!" he half asked, half shouted, "You've been away for like, over fifty years, you come back, and you already know about that?! What the hell, man?!

"I'm still a part of you!" Kale shouted back, "Why would you assume I just left for over fifty years like that?! Are you stupid?!"

" _ **FUCK YOU, ARCHER**_!" Kale and Jayden stared each other down for a moment. "We should probably head back to the Basilicom."

"Yeah, absolutely, one second." Kale jumped through Jayden, fusing with him once more. ' _Let's avoid the explanations and get back there. Don't forget what happened._ '

 _[Oh, and for the record, yes that scene is partially based off of Code MENT 16.]_

* * *

Jayden walked through the door of the Basilicom, the somber mood having returned. Histoire came up to him when he arrived. "Neptune is out back, Jayden... she told me what happened." Jayden's eyes turned to the ground. Histoire put one finger under his chin and guided his face back up to meet hers. "Don't blame yourself for this, baby." she told him, "It's my fault for having left, and it's also Saturn's fault for having not kept up her training. If Saturn was at full capabilities, that wouldn't have happened." Jayden shook his head.

"That doesn't make it any better, Mom..." he said solemnly. His eyes were dull, he was tired, he was ragged, and he was having just generally having a really shitty day. "And don't blame yourself either. I'm supposed to be her Royal Guard." she frowned at him.

"Come now," she said, "You were never really her Royal Guard, that was just some bullshit that we came up with to advertise to the people because you weren't sure what to say." he frowned back. "Nonetheless, this makes you Neptune's Royal Guard now. Trust me, I know by experience that it's easier to protect the ones you love more." she said patting his head. He seemed slightly more contented now.

"Thanks, Mom." he said. She gently kissed his cheek.

"Now go. Check on your girlfriend." Jayden made a face at her which she shot right back. "I'm your mother. I can just tell these kinds of things." Now he was utterly confused, but after something like that, he was afraid to question it. With a hand over his shoulder, he set off the the back courtyard. On the way there, Cavort engaged him in a chat.

' _These conversations seem kinda personal to you. Why don't you have us sit these ones out and call us back when you need us?_ ' Jayden was even more confused now. ' _Besides... what happens next... It's not very fun...'_ Jayden decided not to question it.

' _here, kiddo. I'll guide you through it_.' Absence's hand seemed to guide Jayden's as he pulled Zhen out of his pocket and gave it a spin. He stared at it for a moment before tossing it to the side. Some invisible force caught it. Suddenly, Jayden realized that his head had gone quiet. The invisible force made itself visible, a boy about Jayden's height, blue eyes and short spiky white hair. His eyes were peculiar. Where there should have been the white of his eye, there was black and the blue in the center. He wore a red hoodie, fur present around where it turned over and his hood lay on his back. "Thanks, Buddy." Jayden already knew this was Absence. "I'll see ya when you need me. Just give a call and I'll be there." He nodded.

Jayden entered the back courtyard quietly. Neptune kneeled on the ground, Saturn's grave in front of her. Jayden sat beside her, silently, the same way in which he entered. They sat next to each other for a moment before Neptune slid over to him, nuzzling herself into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her, attempting to console her without breaking the silence. Jayden lost track of time while they sat there, darkness slowly creeping over the hill, their shadows elongating before fading away into the night. After a while, Neptune stood. She helped him to his feet. There were no words needed. Although they'd won the battle, they'd also suffered a great loss in the process. Jayden turned and walked back inside, guiding Neptune to her room, laying her down and tucking her in before kissing her forehead before wishing her goodnight. He walked back into the Lobby, walking up behind Histoire as she tapped away at her keyboard.

"I trust you took care of her?" she inquired. He sighed in response.

"I did my best," he said honestly, "I hope it's good enough." she gave him that look again.

"Of course it is, you've got to stop with this whole self-deprecating thing." Jayden looked back at her now. That seemed awfully blunt for the way she normally was.

"I don't think it's nearly so easy as you put it." she cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes, telling him that she already knew that.

"Well, you'll get it eventually," she said, "And until you do, I'm still supporting you." Jayden knew what was on his mind, and that he had to tell her before he did it.

"Mom," he said, his tone deadly serious, "I'm going to seal myself away until Neptune needs me most." she looked at him, all mirth gone from the atmosphere. "Truth is, when no one was paying attention, Saturn asked me to do this." he said, remembering the conversation. She had practically begged him to ensure that there would always be someone to guide Neptune through her life. He had told her she would. Now that she was gone, he had no physically bond to do so, but seeing as it was the last thing she had asked of him, he knew he had to do it. "Although..." he looked at her, suddenly intense, "I'm afraid that when I wake up, you won't be there anymore... I saw Neptune lose her mother today, now I'm afraid of losing you." Histoire smiled at him reassuringly.

"Well, you don't need to worry about that," she said, her voice smooth and sweet, "the bond between you and I is much stronger than the bond ever was between Neptune and Saturn. Therefore, I can protect you, like a mother should,

Even beyond the barrier of Death.

Nothing is going to keep me from helping you when you need it." she said. Jayden still looked concerned, triggering Histoire response of holding his head with her hands, holding his face to look at her straight. "Got that, young man?" he nodded.

"I don't know where I'd be without you," he said, much calmer now, "But again: thanks, Mom." she pulled him and and gave him a hug, holding her son close, knowing it would be the last time.

"Now then," she said urgently, "about this seal. I know you well enough, and I know that there's no talking you out of it so..." pain reflected in both his and her eyes. This would be the last time they ever talked. "Just know that even though I won't be there to keep telling you, I love you. Now and always." Tears were slowly running down her face. She quickly brushed them away. Jayden was doing his best to stay strong. It was his job now. "I'll keep my tears to myself," she said, "I don't want to make this any harder than it has to be for you. I know how to do this, it's recorded that a legendary hero once did this you know, and that he would come back on the day Gamindustri needed him most."

"Then my seal will last that long as well," he said, "If Gamindustri's in trouble when I wake up, then I'm gonna need all the help I can get." She nodded, leading him to the deepest parts of the Basilicom, and showing him to the room. There was a capsule, solitary and silent, right in the middle of the room. "Guess this is it then." he turned to Histoire, "Goodbye, Mother. I love you." he hugged her once more before walking into the capsule. "Tell Neptune I'm sorry, but this is the best possible way it could be. I hate to leave her like this... but this is what Saturn wanted." Histoire's tears had returned.

"You still don't have to do this..." she said quietly. His face was full of pain.

"Come on now, Mom..." he said in the same quiet tone, "We both know that I do." she couldn't argue any further. He stepped into the capsule and stood strong in the center. Histoire placed her hand on the podium before the capsule and the doors slid closed. The capsule quickly filled with light, then burned away, and when the light dissipated, there was a crystal left behind, slowly cycling through the colours of the rainbow. Histoire hoped he had made the best choice, it was one of his only choices left. Remaining here with Neptune would have changed nothing, and could have possibly made everything end worse, but... Never mind that. Histoire would not doubt her son, she hadn't before, she wouldn't now, and she wouldn't ever. But still, she couldn't ignore the feeling that without him, a shadow would slowly fall over Gamindustri. What would it do when it got here? She wasn't sure yet. But she did know one thing for sure.

Even if she was dead when he came out of that Crystal, she would make damn sure to protect him until he was out, and even afterwards. How was she going to do that? A mother has her ways, and she was about to use hers.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so now, about his chapter:**

 **-Yes, that Code MENT reference was absolutely necessary. No, I didn't know until after I wrote it that someone else had apparently written a reference to the EXACT SAME episode of the same series, instead opting to reference as to why Suzaku was buying clothes in a soup store. (Wow, that makes no sense at _ALL_ out of context.)**

 **-Yeah, the first part of that chapter carried no sense of seriousness, I acknowledge that, and then the second part overturned that by expecting you to become serious. If it's not apparent already, I have bipolar disorder, and my stories commonly reflect what I'm feeling on the inside if I'm coming up with new material. In other words, I apologize for that and I'll try to straighten it out later.**

 **About Next Chapter:**

 **-Funfact, the next chapter was originally going to be the first with a sort of post apocalyptic feel to it. I can't believe I'm saying this but, Yes, I did originally want to make a horror/zombie apocalypse type story for Neptunia. I have no idea how the idea came into my head, it just kind of did.**

 **-I don't know if this is obvious or not, but yes, the base will be dropped in the next chapter. In other words, prepare for the crap to hit the fan. I think I'll keep it at that.**

 **-Next chapter sees Jayden getting released from his seal and meeting the Legendary Hero! I wonder who that could be?**

 **-We're coming up to the final parts of Arc one guys! I think there may be only three or four chapters left in this arc, it depends on how much I want to go into detail on what's happening next... Hm...**

 **Responses to questions and concerns:**

 **Comment; A guest said: "** This sums this story up WTF IS GOING ONN!?"  
 **My response is:** "I'm not sure if you meant that positively or negatively... Either way, I'm glad we can agree on that! I like to keep people on their toes, and trust me, puzzle pieces will be connected later."

 **Comment; AIYF Productions said: "** Graaah! I want more of this story! I'm supposed to be asleep right now, being 0125 hours.  
I seriously need to sleep now _ **"  
** **My response is: "** Crap! Sorry dude! Didn't mean to keep you up... I'm glad you like it and want more though... Not like your opinion means anything to me... baka...  
No,no,no in all seriousness, I'm glad you want more, I'll try to keep it coming. I also appreciate that you've been following me since the start, bro, thanks for that. Also, yeah, sleep is not my strong suits, I totally forgot to sleep a few times last week."

 **Note; A friend of mine said:** "E-Eryn's coming back right? She's... she's not...? Is she?"  
 **My response is:** "Let's find out, shall we? I imagine she is, but I have no idea as of yet, for all I know she pulled a psyche on us all and is actually the final boss. Wait, she didn't exist in the first place, we are we discussing this? I know that was confusing, but I thought... Oh never mind. No. She's not coming back, I don't think."

 **Note; A friend of mine said:** "Hey! I love your writing style! Keep it coming!"  
 **My response was:** "Uh... thanks? (Am I actually any good at this though?)"

 **Sidechat; Noire asked me:** "Where am I in this story?"  
My response was: "Oh trust me, Noire. If I make a fiction without you, the archive will have my head. Same goes for any of the other goddesses."

 **Sidechat; Vert asked me:** "I can see that we will all OBVIOUSLY show up, but why does Neptune always appear first?"  
 **My response was:** "Technically Histoire was first. Then Jayden was next... Then only a reference to Neptune and Nepgear before all of you show up at once later. Also, Neptune's name is in the title, she's like the third most popular character in the series."

 **Sidechat; Blanc noted:** "... I wasn't aware that you were also into writing fan fictions?"  
 **My response was:** "Well, I didn't figure it out until I tried it and the community gave me such positive feedback. After that, I found that I really liked creating stories. Come here, Blanc. Write with me! _(She actually took me up on that one... We'll have to see how future entries come out...)_ "

 **Side-conversation; with Uni:**

 **Uni:** You better not have replaced me with another character like everyone else does.

 **24:** What do you mean like everyone else does?!  That was one guy, and that was the entire basis for his fanfic, Uni!

 **Uni:** Okay, fine... But you didn't replace me right?

 **24:** Nope, you're still there, in all of your adorable glory.

 **Uni:** *huff* For the love of the True goddess, TELL me you did not make fun of my chest.

 **24:** No, I changed around the ages and body forms of certain characters in order to avoid such a thing. it didn't strike me as particularly fair to have you have the smallest chest of the group, not to mention, it made no sense at all to me to have Rom and Ram as children when CPUs age really weirdly, so no. Technically there's no real reason to even make fun of you in this fic's version of you. You're basically a bolder, younger sister type character of Noire.

 **Uni:** Okay... I can work with that I think...

 _[And yes, that was a reference to Black Brother by Experiment Twilight. I like that one a lot.]_

 **Side-Conversation; with Nepgear:**

 **Nepgear:** Um... When do the CPU candidates come in? How do you introduce them?

 **24:** Gear, I think that's better left to a later chapter, don't you think so?

 **Nepgear:** You're right! I'm sorry!

 **24:** It's fine.

 **Nepgear: ...**

 **24:**...If you really want to know, as in you're just going to keep leaning on my back like that until I'm done writing, it'll probably be about the same way you were introduced in Mk 2.

 **Nepgear:** Wait... Why the bondage cables?

 **24:** Fanservice. Though, I'm probably removing those.

 **Nepgear:** Oh thank you!

 **24:** Gear... Please stop hugging me... I need my arms to write with... and I can't move right now...

 **Nepgear:** Oh! Right...

 **24:** ...

 **Nepgear:** ...

 **24:** ... Don't you have anything better to do than lean on my back, Gear...?

 _[It's not that she bothers me! It's just hard to focus with a girl like Nepgear leaning on my back while I'm typing!]_


	15. The Broken Seal and the Genocide Goddess

**A/N: Whoa, that time skip is real... It almost feels like it's been 264 years since I last updated, and that's due to me being lazy and playing too much CS:GO and Gat out of Hell. *sigh* if Only I had a legitimate attention span. Anyway, I'm hoping to get the next chapter out in a semi-more-orderly-and-somewhat-time-efficient manor, though that might just be me dreaming. It's probably just me dreaming. I've kept this long enough, let's get to the chapter.**

* * *

From the time when the crystal sealed him in to when he woke up... 264 years. That's how long it took for the seal to be released. Jayden woke with a start, unable to move. He looked around, only with his eyes, his head still immobile. His vision was sort of odd, fractured even, to the point where it looked like looking through a kaleidoscope. After a moment, he realized what was happening. It was the crystal. For whatever reason, it hadn't broken. Maybe he wasn't supposed to be awake yet? No, that couldn't be it, he would still be sealed and asleep then. He had enough space to barely move, and was a bit stiff, but if Gamindustri was in trouble now, he didn't have time to simply wait for someone to come get him. He used whatever space he had and began to slam outwards, crashing against the crystal, every hit forming microscopic cracks and making them extend forwards, slowing encasing the whole crystal in hairline fractures. He hit it a few more times before the crystal blinked and reformed. Crap. So he had to do this quickly, then. He began to bang on the crystal again, to the point where it was once more encased in fractures. At this point, he knew he had one shot at this. With every ounce of strength available and otherwise, he bashed outwards, shattering the crystal, his shields clattering to the ground, so many pieces of the crystal flying everywhere that Jayden may as well have turned it to dust.

He regained his bearings for a moment, vibrancy returning to his eyes, light ribbons of colour dancing here and there as he refreshed himself on who he was, where he was, and what he was here to do. The first order of business was to find that hero. Whoever they were, or... he, right? Histoire had made it sound like a guy, but Jayden wasn't too sure. 95% of the cast of this game was female, and that was including himself and all of his alternate souls. Jayden looked first left, then right, stretching and grabbing his shields from the floor behind him with the ink cables from his airbrush ring; he'd almost forgotten about it. He noted that the room he was in was no longer just dark and kind of ominous, but now it was full on overgrown and dusty. That didn't bode well for what was upstairs. There were no monsters present as he trekked outwards, only skittering leaves and billowing dust clouds. Jayden prayed to whatever deity was listening that he wouldn't find what he expected to find upstairs. Unfortunately, if a deity was listening, it took no action, not that it could have at this point.

Jayden breathing halted as he took in the Basilicom in its current state. There was nothing much left. Chairs were shredded and tables were overturned, almost as if someone had tried to hide behind them, claw and slash marks present in the tops of them, gashing through the tables entirely, revealing that whatever tried to hide behind them was probably unsuccessful in doing so. The glass windows were shattered, the glass spilled across the room, so whatever was trying to get through them was coming in, not going out. Jayden began to fear the worst. He checked the bedrooms. They were, disturbingly, unscathed. So whatever or whoever had done this didn't want to ruin the bedrooms for whatever reason? Interesting. Lastly, Jayden checked the front desk. The desk itself was cleaved down the middle, splintered, broken, and otherwise in shambles. Behind the desk, however, was what pained him most. The remnants of the book, the two covers, shredded pages, rusted and shattered chains, and a small bookmark lay on the ground. There was no sign of the book fairy. There was no sign of any life for that matter. Jayden bit his lip and sighed. They both knew it would happen. She'd followed him through it too. There were no more regrets to be had about it. Only that they hadn't been with each other in the end. He kissed the fingertips of his right hand and touched the remains lightly with the same hand. He kneeled for a moment, his hand on the cover, when it began to stir.

Suddenly, the remnants surged skywards, whirling around the room and began to rebuild itself. First the cover slammed into the remains of the desk, the pages began to place themselves before the book mark and the rest of the pages flew into place, the final step being the chains wrapping around the book. The book then picked itself up off the desk and handed itself to Jayden. Histoire final words echoed in his head: "T _he bond between you and I is much stronger than the bond ever was between Neptune and Saturn. Therefore, I can protect you, like a mother should, Even beyond the barrier of Death. Nothing is going to keep me from helping you when you need it._ " Understanding the situation better now, Jayden took the book in both his hands. Much to his astonishment, the book disassembled itself again and now the pieces were swirling around him. The chains wrapped around his arms and the pages, bookmark, and covers reassembled themselves on his back. Jayden looked at the chains now decorating his arms. They didn't restrict his movement at all, and actually extended outwards so he could hit thing with them. As for the book, he noted that he could blink-teleport the book into his hand or onto his back, yet so long as he had the book, he could cast whatever spells were in it. Jayden remembered his mother calling the book ' **Memoire Jumun**.'

This name was actually two different languages in the same phrase. _Memoire_ was the word for Memory in French. _Jumun_ was Korean for Spell. It made sense actually. Histoire recorded any spell she ever saw, so if she remembered it, she could cast it. Thus, Memory Spell. Now then, where was the hero? If he remembered correctly, this hero was in Celestia, and was sealed somewhere as high as the sky reaches. Jayden needed to find a way up there, with the teleporter in the Basilicom out of commission, there had to be another way. Jayden could remember reading something about there being an older nation somewhere that was lower tech than the other nations. They had collapsed long ago, but there was a physical gate up to Celestia if the CPU ever needed to go. Where was this old nation? It was somewhere Southwest of Lowee, right? That would put it directly West of where he stood now. Jayden turned and ran that way, running as fast as he could, but when he came to the separation, he was going to need someway to fly. He didn't have any of his alternate souls with him, and without Zhen, he felt a bit vulnerable. Eventually, he reached the edge of the continent, skidding to a stop just before he plummeted of the cliff. He didn't know what to do now. He couldn't fly on his own. Shadow Soul couldn't fly, and he didn't have a spell for flight. Did he? He tried to think about it. There was a spell to make a CPU able to fly, but not a human like himself. Utilizing HDD, Jayden called on Shadow Soul. The markings on the tome blazed to life, filled with energy but, no longer using the power of shares. There was no one around as far as he could see. So there was no one to give shares now. He got a running start and jumped off the cliff of the continent. When he was a good three or four seconds through the air, the book flung itself open on his back and the pages burst out of it again, reforming into paper wings, ancient symbols circling them, filling them with energy and filling Jayden with the power of flight. He took a moment to get used to how his flying worked, then rushed off West to find the old nation.

* * *

It didn't take as long as he thought it would. He could fly about as fast as he could run or afterimage phase, so he'd gotten to the rumored continent quite quickly. He phased along the ground until he saw buildings, phasing in their direction. Similarly so, this nation was also devoid of life, but that was to be expected, this nation was abandoned a long time ago. Their colour seemed to be **pink-ish**. Not quite red, but not quite purple, and not quite magenta either. Even so, all of the present colours were faded and dull. It wasn't hard to find the gate, it was the only thing that wasn't faded and broken. Matter of fact, it almost seemed like the gate had been made just recently, but Jayden knew it was just because of the magic on it. The gate was open, no locks, no seals, no anything, so Jayden merely pushed it open and walked through. That seemed a little too easy. Whatever.

As Jayden scaled the flying islands and mountains of Celestia, he noted that there were no monsters, not even here. It confused him as to what could have done this; if it wasn't a monster, what was it? He was nearly halfway up when he came across a jump he couldn't make. He attempted to transform into Shadow Soul once more, but to no avail. Be it the thin air or plot convenient skill/energy failure, a transformation just wasn't happening. Jayden jumped as high as he could and kick-jumped off of a wall, but it still wasn't enough height. Suddenly, his wings deployed and a flap was enough to get him up to the platform. He looked behind himself, admiring his wings. He had no idea what actually made him able to use them, or what dictated when he could, but he wasn't sure he cared. These things were astronomically helpful. With a combination of Ink cables, chain swinging, wing flapping, and high-jumping, Jayden managed to ascend all the way to the top. He was literally sky high now, at least a mile or two higher than the level of clouds. He was so high up that even gravity felt a bit loose. Finally he came up to the last platform. he grabbed the edge and pulled himself up, bracing himself for whatever might be there. It was a crystal, much like the one he'd been in an hour ago. It had several cracks in it, but he couldn't see anything on the inside of it. He punched the crystal dead on. It probably wasn't the best way to safely remove what was inside but, it would, at the very least, get what or whoever it was, out. Jayden flung strikes at it over and over until the crystal shattered much the same as it had done for him. On the inside, however, nothing persisted. He hadn't destroyed the hero on accident, had he? No, that wouldn't make any sense, nor would the seal have been THAT faulty. That seal was allegedly made by the True Goddess so it shouldn't have been that fragile. Wait, no, there was something on the ground. Jayden walked over to it and picked it up. It was a plate of armour, but he couldn't figure out where to put it. As such, he decided to stash it in his inventory. Now he had no leads, no hero, and no real option of where to go. the most annoying part is that he had no idea where to go, or who to track down to avenge anyone. He jumped from the platform, his wings deploying as he soared through the air, diving and arriving in Leanbox, making the landing as smooth as possible. Now the question was, could he find Zhen? With no sword, and no real knowledge of what to do, his main options for attack were using Memoire Jumun, or throwing out a quick Ink Blade. He looked at his airbrush ring. He had nothing to do, so now seemed a good a time as any to try and train with it. He focused, time slowing down, painting different symbols to see what they did. the line was Ink Blade, but drawing lines between different things had mixed results. He could direct fire and water to go places, and even drop thunder bolts, but he noted that the Ring had it's own SP pool of sorts, like he needed ink to use brush strokes. It kind of made sense. Finally, he drew an upwards facing arrow, and his vision went weird for a moment before shifting to an overhead, top-down view. This was interesting. Out of curiosity, he drew a circle around himself and put a line extending from himself outwards. The line rotated around him, just like a military scanner, a red dot showing up in one spot, then another, then another, quickly getting closer to him. Wait, that meant... Crap.

Jayden turned quickly and spiked his elbow into the face of his aggressor, it was female, then punched her in the face, driving her back and landing another punch with his other hand, this one significantly more powerful, and engulfed with magic, courtesy of a spell, the attacker flying back and slamming into a wall. He gasped when he saw who it was, his hands covering his mouth. "Nep?" he asked quietly. She recovered from the hit, looking mostly unscathed, but something was very wrong. Her eyes and head twitched at random, blood covered her hands, dripping off her fingertips, dirt covering her face. She smiled, ear to ear, teeth, jagged and sharp, showing. She looked straight out of a horror movie, and to add to that, she was gently laughing as she approached. "Nep..." she showed no signs of stopping, "Nep, this isn't funny. You're scaring me." Her face straightened for a moment as she stood up and her eyes, bloodshot, and, somehow, red in colour, staring him down. He took a step back.

"I HOPE YOU'RE AFRAID..." she said menacingly, not quite shouting, but loud enough to be barely audible. Her voice was different, and she was in a form that he didn't recognize. It wasn't quite a CPU form, it looked more like the other CPU, what was it called? A CGU, was that it? That was it, and that's what Neptune seemed to have. That voice, it was familiar, where had he heard it before? "IT'S ALWAYS MORE FUN WHEN THEY SCREAM..." suddenly, her eyes flushed black, small red dots appearing in the center, something that looked like blood dripping down from the sockets. Jayden was kind of mortified, this was extremely jarring.

"Nep...tune?" he wasn't sure how to react, he'd already hit her thrice, and he didn't want to do so anymore.

"NEPTUNE ISN'T HERE RIGHT NOW. I AM. AND I WANT TO KILL YOU... YOU'RE THE LAST ONE LEFT, THE ONE THAT DAMN FAIRY WAS TRYING TO PROTECT... IF ONLY SHE WAS STILL HERE... SHE PUT UP A GOOD FIGHT YOU KNOW, KEPT TALKING ABOUT YOU... 'I won't let you hurt him!' SHE CRIED... 'He won't let you get away with this!' SHE SAID... 'I won't tell you where he is! I won't let you get to him! Over my cold lifeless body!' HEH... THAT WAS ARRANGED, WITH SOME CHALLENGE, BUT IT WAS DONE..." Jayden was a little taken aback again, she'd mimicked Histoire's voice perfectly, but instantly, he knew what that meant. All semblance of caring about Neptune left him. She wasn't there, whoever was in her body had said it themselves. What he did know, is that this thing had murdered his mother. Light erupted forth, Shadow soul coming out, the page wings extended and ready. "HAHAH... YOU PLAN TO FIGHT ME? HOW PITIFUL... BUT I SUPPOSE THE OUTCOME IS THE SAME. LET US BATTLE." Jayden's brought up his arms, blades extending from the edges of his shields.

"In truth, I don't plan to fight you," he said calmly, "I plan to kill you."

"WORDS WITHOUT ACTION. ACT BOY!"

"With pleasure!"

Jayden sprang up and forward, droping bolts of lightning, throwing blades of wind, rushing torrents at her, bursting flames from either shield. He landed just in front of her, the magic attacks having inflicted enough damage, he swung back and forth. Dodge! Swing! Strike! Block! Crash! He jumped back, narrowly dodging her sword, but she lunged forward last moment, barely nicking his left arm. Jayden grabbed his arms and hissed slightly. He looked at his health, he'd taken about an eighth of his health in damage from that hit. He looked at Neptune's body. "What the ffffff... oh never mind it..." he lunged forwards again, not caring about himself, just caring about ending the person in control of Neptune. It took forever, and he was down to his last shreds of health, but he spun, swung, and caught Neptune's neck with the blade of his left shield. The last points of HP depleted from her health bar, but she didn't fall. Jayden was confused again before, he saw a tiny flaw in the end of the bar and realized what had just happened. Her health bar had been green at first and as it faded, the colour under it was red. he'd though that was empty, but it turned out, confirmed by the small dent in her new one, that she had another health bar, and it looked like there was another under that one. Jayden was at the full extent of his abilities, and even so, there was no way he could beat this person. She laughed an empty, hollow laugh. He clenched his teeth as she raised her sword and went to deal the final blow, but it was blocked. A boy, about Jayden's height, with short spiky white hair there were several afterimages around, but Jayden couldn't tell where they came from. He wore a red hoodie and jean shorts, complete with sneakers just like Jayden's own on his feet. In the boy's hand was a blade composed of two parts; one part energy blade, blue in colour and running up the center of the other part, the other part two physical metal blades. He knew that sword. He knew this boy. "Absence?"

"We'll have time to catch up later, for now, let's move!" Absence raised his hands into the air, "Lunar Drake!" A white and black dragon, that seemed to be made of energy, crashed down from above, slamming into Neptune and driving her back, slamming her into a building, passing through her and into the wall as it racked up tons of damage, yet, even so, the dragon didn't stop it's attack until it had fully passed through Neptune, it's tail disappearing through the wall of the broken building. Jayden looked at her health bar now. That one attack had not only broken the red health bar, but had also broken the yellow one and revealed that there was another health bar underneath, with another under it. "She's got more health bars just like all those, so let's get out of here!" He didn't have to tell Jayden twice. Together, the two fled the scene.

* * *

"Ha... ha... hoo..." Jayden panted heavily as they arrived, away from the nations, far enough that whatever that thing was wouldn't be able to track them down. He straightened himself out, regaining his composure and fixing his hair. Absence looked over at him. "So then..." Jayden managed, "What... what... the fuck... was... THAT?" Absence sighed.

"It's the same thing that took all of our happy endings," Absence said, his tone pained, "The Deity of Sin, and right now she's in her total Genocide form, and, also right now, we're the only thing holdin' her back from taking that form and moving on to the next world to erase that one too. We may have a lot of timelines to work with, but let's not push our luck. She's already erased most of our timelines, let's not have her erase this one too. There's not much left to save, but at least we can have some peace." Jayden nodded.

"It'd be better if we'd anything left to save, but still. It'd be a job well done." Absence drove Zhen into the ground, Kale and Cavort stepping out in their physical forms. Cavort had a really interesting physical form. His hair looked like it had exploded and he'd gelled it that way. Also, his hair was an intriguing colour that was somewhere between red and brown and his eyes were blood-red and almost looked villain like, but Jayden didn't mind it much. Cavort was also wearing a tactician cloak and a loose white shirt along with black sweatpants and blue slippers. The whole outfit didn't look like it went together, but Jayden ignored it.

"So here's how we're gonna do this," Absence started.

"Ever heard of a Shardifact?" Kale asked. Jayden made a face.

"A Shartifact? dude, that's gross." Kale face palmed and Cavort giggle a bit, Absence's face didn't even change.

"Shard, not shart Jay," Cavort noted, still slightly giggly, "But there's a few of them sealed around Gamindustri, this one has like, six." Jayden looked at him basically asking, 'so what do?' "People seem to think that these artifacts are sealed Heroes or something, the most noteworthy one being the one sealed in Celestia..." Cavort trailed off.

Kale put one hand on his mouth, sighing. Absence was dead serious, "We're not getting that one," he said straight, "That's not one you wanna get. That hero specifically is known for being a monster, like he's got no mercy for anything or anyone." Jayden decided not to mention that he'd already gotten it. Instead, he decided to get this to work in his favor. He kept listening.

"First off, there's one in each Nation," Kale said, "Then there's one hidden below Leanbox, there're catacombs down there, and the Shard with the artifact in it is down there. The last one is in that rumored old nation Southwest of Lowee." Fuck, He'd been there just earlier. Somehow he'd failed to sense that, and in all honesty, even if he had, he probably would've ignored it anyway. Nonetheless, time was of the essence, even if their presence was holding her back, it was impossible to tell when they'd get found, and if they did get found, then they were, as it was, screwed.

"So how do we use these things?" Jayden asked. That was the main question here, if someone knew that, all they'd have to do is find the things and they'd be golden. "And more importantly where do we start?"

"The artifacts can be used like any other item," Cavort said, "So long as whatever is sealed in the item is willing to open itself up to you."

"We're gonna be splitting up just in case one of us gets found out," Kale noted, "Better to have one of us go down rather than all of us."

"Then just tell me where I'm going," Jayden was used to this kind of thing. He'd done his fair share of guild quests, "And I'll get moving. There's no time to waste."

"Get the one in the abandoned Nation," Absence told him, "We'll handle the rest." Jayden turned and took off. As he'd just said, there was no time to spare. Absence turned to the other three. "Kale, Get Leanbox, Cavy, Planeptune, I'll get Lastation and Lowee." With silent nods, Kale turned and disappeared into the woods and Cavort flew up and off towards the purple city. Absence turned. "He's already got it..." he said under his breath, "I hope he knows what he's doin'... That's the one that I've never seen. If it was any of the others... Damn... Had to be that one..." With that, he knew there was work to be done. "No time to be chatting with myself. Let's get moving." In a blur of afterimages, Absence burst off towards Lowee.

(Line)

It didn't take him long to get there. There were no enemies in the way, and he could move around, or even through in certain cases, anything that was in his way easily enough. Before long, he stood before the entrance to the Basilicom room. This one was easy enough to get, it was in the sealing room in the depths of the Basilicom. Moving quickly, blurring through the building, ignoring the various marks and decrepit broken things around, it took him a while to find the key to said room. The Lowee Basilicom was not one he was familiar with, White Heart and him had never gotten along very well, it was mainly that he wound up phasing around the room as she repeatedly swung or threw her weapon at him. He never knew why she didn't like him so much, but he'd always wanted the chance to get to know her beyond the end of her blade, after all, he only had 10 HP. Granted every hit he took would only do one damage, but still, that wasn't something he wanted to mess with. So nonetheless, he knew where the room was, but it was locked, so where was the key?

After the some odd twenty minutes that it took him to find the key to the sealing room, he stood before the door and pushed it open. "Nice place," he said, "though I think it could do without the whole decrepit, abandoned feel to it. Oh wait..." Nevermind. The shard was in the middle of the room. He knew it well enough. He lightly touched the crystal with his hand and blue light began to seep throughout the crystal before it blinked out of existence leaving a necklace behind. He took the artifact in his hand. "Glad to have this back," he said, "Jay's gonna get a kick outta this one." He fitted the necklace around his neck. He didn't have to activate this one. Jayden didn't need to know this story. "It's funny," he told the necklace, "All of my history, my hopes and dreams, hell... even her... sis... Ah, forget it. It's all behind me." He looked at the necklace again, "To think you remember all that... At least that makes two of us." He took the pendant of the necklace and it split into two wherein the purpose of the necklace became clear. It was actually, a pair of wireless headphones situated around his neck, sitting on his shoulders. The pendant was held together by magnets and, when separated, became two earbuds that went in to listen to music. It was then that Absence realized that he didn't have his phone anymore. "Damn," he said, "Just can't catch a break... Just when I thought something would go my way..." he shook his head, "Don't think that way, Ab." He told himself, "Just roll with it."

Absence turned and headed out of the Basilicom, a glowing aura slowly surrounding him as he did. Musical notes began to pop up in said aura as a song began to play. Absence hummed to himself, his headphones glowing, giving him the ability to do this. They were called the Synthesizer Phones, and gave the user the ability to manipulate sound into music. At first this seemed oddly useless, but with the right tune, and the right added enchantments, one could completely alter the mood of someone, or even motivate them to work harder, and, to Absence, they were the highest quality of wireless headphones you could have, even providing you with the ability to have music, even if you had forgotten your own. He hummed and whistled as the song played, enjoying the walk out of the building. When he got to the exit, his enjoyment was cut short. As soon as he left the door, he phased right, narrowly avoiding the swing of a sword.

"Come on," he said, "I know you're the Deity of Sin, but that's a dick move." The deity looked at him, smiling demonically.

"YOU MAKE IT SEEM LIKE LIKE I WOULD, OR SHOULD, CARE." she responded. Absence shrugged and gave a half-nod.

"That's fair," he said, "I can understand that." The deity frowned and made an odd growl-like sound.

"HOW CAN YOU BE SO NONCHALANT ABOUT THIS?" she hissed, "I COULD END YOUR LIFE BEFORE YOU KNEW I STARTED MOVING. THIS ISN'T A MOMENT WHEN YOU SHOULD BE OFF GUARD. IF I DESTROY YOU HERE, THEN YOU DON'T COME BACK."

Absence chuckled slightly, "Is that right? I dunno. Jayden seems to think that he can still save you somehow. He ain't said it yet, but I can feel him thinkin' it; I can see it in his face. Personally, I think you're nothing but a worthless world killer and infamous murderer. Somehow, he can't even swing with full force at you, and that's considering even how you killed his mother, so this kid's got some serious reason for likin' you, fuck if I know what it is." he chuckled again, then looked back up at her. "If he thinks you're worth saving, then I'm not gonna judge him for that. And if he wants to save you, he's gonna go through as many timelines as he needs to in order to do that. But I'm gonna warn you, you're on the edge. I can't imagine he's gonna give you many more chances. You've already taken everyone he loves from him, first Lucifer and Undyne, and right after he said goodbye to them too, then you took Neptune, True Goddess only knows how he can look past that, and then, finally, you took his mother from him. You just won't ever be satisfied, will you? You know what? Don't answer that. I already know the answer. Nonetheless, if he's gonna go through so many damn timelines, then at one point or another, I'm just gonna return to him as a soul and that'll be it. So... technically speaking, I CAN afford not to care, see? But then again," he looked down at his shoes, "I know Jayden's type. He's been hit with Amnesia, and he might not ever recover from that, but he's the kind who doesn't ever forget anything. The thought of lookin' him in the eye, after knowin' I gave up on him? I can't take that. So then," he looked the Deity in the eyes, focusing his energy, the Power Pressure in the air sparking first, then spiking upwards and reaching a crushing level. "Let's just get to the point. It could've been such a nice day today, if you hadn't burned everything to hell. Allow me to show you the way to where you've sent everyone else...

they're just **DYING** to see you again."

* * *

 **A/N: Wow, couldn't keep it serious until the end. Arc one will end in Chapter 17 unless I have to split one of the two chapters into two part. I've got the groundwork laid for both, so I think I should be able to get at least one of them out during the weekend. Also, someone asked me why I chose such names for my characters. For the OC's or partial OC's that I've made thus far, here's the reasons. Also, someone said I should add a fun-fact or question response at the end of each chapter, so this should be the one for this Chapter.**

 **Jayden:** So, funny story, I originally planned to make a fiction that was like a Neptunia version of Undertale, but after a while, I realized that that was a horrible idea and that I didn't have the skill to pull it off. The second version was the prototype of the Paradox/Pacifist, in which there was still a gender neutral protagonist, such that the reader could decide and put themselves in place of the character. I figured, what's a good, general, and gender-neutral name? Suddenly, Jayden popped into mind seeing as, I have friends, both male and female, with said name. When I changed to later versions of the story, this name stuck, and I found myself keeping it until the version we have today.

 **Lucifer:** Show of hand: who's seen or read Howl's Moving Castle? Well, Lucifer is a take on Calcifer, who is Howl's fire demon. Also, Lucifer plays a bit of a bigger part really soon, so I'm gonna hold off on giving too much to avoid spoilers.

 **Undyne:** Ah, the fish girl. Show of hands again, who thought her name was because of Undyne from Undertale? Believe it or not, I had casted Undyne as a character before I had even heard of Undertale, most people don't know that Undyne is the name of a water spirit from mythology, not just a fish girl from an indie game. So that's where her name comes from, because she's also a water spirit. Also, the mech suit that Jayden revealed in that chapter is also going to have a bigger use soon.

 **Saturn:** Okay, so I don't consider Saturn a TRUE OC of mine, and that's because the Mother-to-Neptune character has been done before, but in previous times, she's had different names, I've even seen it where people play Uranus (The ancient CPU from Re;birth 2, yeah, I wonder how many people remembered her?) or Plutia (That one doesn't make sense to me...) to be Neptune's mother. I've seen her with the name Saturn before, and I figured that would be the name because A. I thought it was a good name and is actually based off of a Sega console. I didn't know that until recently, but the Saturn was also a Sega console. Also, now they're both also planets. I dunno, Naming themes.

 **Kale:** So I kept track of how many questions I received on each name, Cavort and Kale tied between having the most. The reasoning behind Kale's name, as stated in chapter ten, was that one of Jayden's original counterparts was named Kale. I also named him Kale because of the colour green, in case anyone doesn't know, (I didn't for a while, actually) Kale is a vegetable. It also sound a bit like Gale, and wind was originally Kale's main element before I made him into an archer. Now his main element is earth.

 **Cavort:** So yeah, not everything is based off an Undertale reference, but Cavort is. Loosely based off of Frisk, the word Frisk (Yes, that's actually a word, I was surprised as well.) means to jump about playfully, and the word Cavort (Yeah, that's a word too, you learn something new every day. We're just using all the fancy vocabulary today.) means the same thing. So now Cavort has a few main abilities, for whatever reason, Cavort's eyes are red by default even though there is nothing evil or dark about him. True to his name, Cavort's main ability, other than not needing any kind of energy to fly, is his ability to change to adapt. If it is unsafe in the air, or he needs more speed, his eyes will change to blue and his jump height is astronomically boosted and his run speed is boosted up to the speed of afterimage phasing. If he's being bombarded, his eyes will change to green and he'll be able to throw up a magic shield. This shield only acts in his front though, and as a result, he takes more damage from his unguarded back. If he is unable to move to attack, his eyes will turn yellow and his ranged magic will become more intense. I'll try and make a summary for each of the alternate souls for clarification.

 **Absence:** Hey 24! Since Cavort means the same thing as Frisk, and Absence means the same thing as Sans, that's what he's based off of, right? Well, yes and no. As I said earlier, I started making this before I knew about Undertale, but Absence and Sans are very similar, but also, very different characters. Here's a summary, though a long one at that: true to his name, Absence is the epitome of the term 'Glass Cannon' having no defense and close to no HP, possessing exactly ten. However, he has no defense stat, the processing of the world is unsure of how to handle this and decides that every strike he takes will deal only one damage. Absence also has no attack stat and as such, his attacks do only one damage, but the processing of the world will not register a hit and therefore no invincibility timer will be set and the target will feel no impact. The two of these factors combined, one damage can quickly build up to 90 or even 100 due to the fact that the target will feel no pain until they realize their HP has dropped. Also true to his name, Absence can be just that: absence. He possess no speed stat, so the processing of the world has no clue what kind of cap to put on his speed and therefore does not cap it at all. Because of this, one step can put Absence up to several miles away with no extra effort. He can also disappear and reappear elsewhere, confusing his opponent with afterimages of where he was, but no longer is. Jayden's Afterimage Phasing ability also stems from Absence and is Absence's main way of getting around, seeing as Absence is never seen running, rather phasing from place to place, or simply materializing or popping up where he wasn't before. Absence met his end when fighting the Deity of Sin in his own timeline. Her speed was just enough to land a hit and before he knew it, Absence was out of healing items. He managed to put up a good enough fight to weaken the Deity, making the fight that Jayden's going to have to do possible, but not without meeting his own end. Absence does not use Jayden's shields. Matter of fact, he doesn't use a weapon at all. Rather, Absence can attack without moving or thinking at all, and normally being a strong follower of the concept behind Occam's Razor, claiming that giving it his all is too much effort for something that won't matter later. Absence attacks with beams of light and the occasional giant laser beam, also being able to throw around dragons made of moonlight to blast away opponents. Despite being made of moonlight, Absence can still use them during the day. When Absence is in control Jayden's eyes and strip of hair turn blue. It's possible to tell between Blue Cavort and Absence because, although his eyes will shift to blue, his hair will not. Absence seems to know more than anyone else does. This is demonstrated several times throughout several chapters. Despite following the premises of Occam's Razor, there are a small handful of moments where Absence notes that he 'cannot afford not to care anymore.' Absence is normally quite strong, but at full effort, he is nearly unstoppable, having access to a full pool of HP and speed that makes him at least three times as fast as any adversary Jayden has faced so far. Combine those two with that fact that his attacks will do much more than one point of damage and he becomes a nigh unstoppable force in combat. The final moments of this chapter are a preview for this.

 **And that's everything for this time. I hope I didn't make anyone wait TOO long. Although, it was pretty long... Oh, one last thing! I noted that my grammar is off in several instances throughout the fiction, and sometimes entire sections have been cut out. I don't know why that is, it could be something wrong with my internet, or the fact that I write extremely quickly, or the fact that I've copied and pasted the words from my notepad account too quickly, I aim to fix that by the end of the first Arc. I know for certain that chapter one itself had a huge chunk missing, where Histoire goes from standing at the doorstep to holding a basket with a child in it, I just don't know HOW much is missing, or how exactly it happened. I plan to reread and fix it wither next chapter, or the one after that. There are several points that should make a little more sense after I do so.**

 **I hope yall have a lovely evening. Enjoy life and live it to the fullest, friends. I will see you in the next chapter. Thanks for all the support you've given me so, stay awesome, guys. Peace!**


	16. The Mage, The Madman, and the Monster

**A/N: So, funny story, I actually finished this chapter yesterday, then forgot to upload it. Reason being, my mother made chicken, and I was really hungry. Judge me all you want, I like my chicken... Nonetheless, here I am, sitting in school, typing out this author's note on a computer, so I figured, what am I going to do right now? In all seriousness, there's nothing I'd rather do than write this kind of stuff, because nothing makes me happier than providing content for you guys, and seeing how much positivity comes from it. So here's a big thank you to everyone who reads my content, and also, a big thank you to AIYF Productions for providing support. I was half tempted to end this fiction several times, mainly due to my poor writing skill and lack of skill in grammar and story fabrication, but reading his comments fills me with the drive to continue writing. So AIYF, if you're reading, thank you so much. I would've released this chapter later because I was working, but due to your last comment, I decided to free up some time to finish it. This chapter's like... five thousand words or something**

 **Oh also, I did the grammar updates for chapters one and two. Mainly arbitrary, mostly just some different wording, but if you feel like giving them a reread, then PMing me if you find any mistakes, I would much appreciate it.**

 **I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you at the end-slate!**

* * *

Cavort sat on top of the spire of the Basilicom. He didn't actually know where the artifact in this nation was. Sure, he could sense it, but that was only if he was close, and truthfully, he only knew it was somewhere around the Basilicom, not which direction it may have been in, or even how far. It must have been pretty far away, after all, he couldn't sense it, and he had about a mile or two of a sensing radius. The only thing he could sense from more than a mile away were his alternate souls, and that worried him because both Absence and Jayden had gone off radar. For Jayden, maybe it was understandable, he was over a three nation distance away, so that was completely justified. Absence, on the other hand, was hardly two nations away, and he could still sense Kale, so what was going on with that? The Deity of Sin must have been somewhere between them, there was a huge amount of energy distorting his senses around that area. Cavort eventually came to the decision not to worry about it. Absence could handle himself in most situations, hell, Cavort couldn't remember ever seeing Absence actually get hit by anything. Sure, he'd probably be fine. Cavort slipped himself off the spire and smoothly flew through the broken violet city. It was almost funny, he was so used to this kind of city being so bustling and loud, and now there was no semblance of noise anywhere. Wait... nevermind, that's not funny. Cavort landed on the roof of a small building, it was a restaurant of some sort. It looked a little familiar, but he couldn't pick out why it seemed familiar. The memory probably wasn't his, it was probably one of Jayden's. He was still having trouble adjusting to the fact that he had loose shards of Jayden's memories as well, mainly from when Jayden was still a child. This particular restaurant seemed to hold a particular memory sometime after Jayden had turned four, maybe when he was almost five... He could sense something from this location, he just wasn't sure what it was. It very well could have been the shard, but it also could have been something else entirely, and with an energy signature like that, it wasn't something he wanted to fight. Then again, he had no other leads, so that decision was already made for him. Lovely!

So Cavort wasn't very good at making decisions, it was why he relied so heavily on Absence and the others to do so for him. However, he liked this decision, that had been made for him, less and less with every step towards the outcome. He'd wound up somewhere deep in a forest, the thicket being so dense that it blocked most of any kind of light. Cavort held up his right hand, a small fire blazing to life in it, his mother and father had taught him how to do this. They weren't his actual parents, but he pretty much accepted them as Mother and Father. His mother, however, was not Histoire, like the case was with Jayden. Similarly to Jayden however, he had the brilliant talent of tangents, as was demonstrated through these previous three sentences. Getting back to the artifact, and why he didn't like blindly following the signature that may, or may not, have been it, the area he'd been walking in had slowly transitioned from the city, to the suburbs, to the plains, to a thin forest, to the dark, and frankly, kinda scary, forest he was in now. Cavort tried to think of ways to distract himself. He was constantly reminding himself that fear was nothing more than a completely curable malady, and something that he needn't worry himself about in the slightest. Absence had told him that the only thing he ever had to fear was fear itself. That and most other frightening things, of course. Then again, Cavort had added that second part himself; maybe there was a reason that it wasn't there in the first place. He looked to his left, then to his right. He could see everything clearly thanks to the fire in his hand, so that wasn't much of a problem. Also, there were no monsters to be afraid of, Miss Deity had taken care of that. Not to mention, he still had his sword and shield, as well as his powerful magics to defend himself if he had to, but he wouldn't have to, there was nothing to defend himself from. Seeing as these three things were true, there was, indeed, no doubt, none whatsoever, nothing to fear. Unless one of those three things wasn't true... He couldn't be sure.

Crap.

This might take longer than he had anticipated, Ab was probably already done. Kale would at the very least, have had one of his artifacts by now. He had to focus and get this done a little quicker, they had enough time, but keeping them waiting couldn't have been a good idea. Quietly, he slipped out his sword into his off-hand. Even if there were no monsters around, he still felt safer holding it and having it ready. Suddenly, the ground quaked slightly. Cavort was already beginning to panic. He was alone, it was dark, the fire in his hand seemed to be slowly dimming, no matter how much energy he put into it. His breathing quickened as he tried to comprehend what was happening. Voices began to whisper to him as he continued to walk. ' _Something's wrong_ ' he thought, 'what's happening?' ' _Where am I now_?' ' _this is not okay_.' ' _I am not okay._ '

' ** _Something is WRONG_**.'

The breeze gently passed him by as the forest seemed to illuminate itself somehow. Glowing pollen gave off light, mushrooms glimmered their own bright colours into the dark forest. Cavort took a deep breath, trying to prevent hyperventilating. This whole situation seemed much too familiar. Suddenly, the voices changed, melting into one. Somehow, the voice had no tone. He didn't even really hear it. It was as if the voice wasn't actually talking, he just heard it anyway, somehow. "What are you trying to accomplish?" it asked him, "what have you come here to do?"

"That depends on who I'm talking to..." he said wearily. Vines crept in around the edges of his vision. He ignored them, trying to think about what Absence had told him before. Cavort, in his own life, had suffered from anxiety attacks, and had taken to being a naturally aloof kind of guy to try and get around that. It worked for the most part, but there were still times where he felt the effects. Absence had helped him through it, but now he was alone. Through a few deep breaths, he managed to get over it. He tried to talk to the disembodied voice again. "Alright, alright. I get the point," he told it, "so what am I here to do? I'm trying to find something, then I'll be on my way. That okay with you?" he was met with silence, but the darkness seemed to recede. Suddenly, he found himself making much more progress than before. The scenery actually changed as he walked, no longer looping as it had been. A slight smile graced his face. A slight glimmer shone through the forest up ahead. Cavort already knew what it was.

The crystal was different than the ones he'd seen previously. It was blue in colour, whereas the two he'd seen before were orangey-yellow. This didn't seem like too much of an important difference, he'd only seen two, so who cared what colour it may or may not have normally been. Cavort put his hand on the crystal and light enveloped it. As the light dissipated, the artifact was left. It was a bracelet with a gemstone inlaid into the band on the front. Cavort held it up slightly to get a better look at it. When he did so, it glimmered slightly, reflecting a light that wasn't there. As if taking a cue, he held it up higher, fulling extending his arm raising the bracelet to the sky. This was his first time doing this, but he'd figure it out quickly enough.

* * *

As the blinding light receded, Cavort found himself standing in a train station. He was standing next to a boy that was about his height, dressed in a blue parka and grey pants. "Well, you're dressed for winter, aren't you?" he asked the boy next to him. When the boy turned to him, Cavort could see that the boy's eyes were orange and bright, almost piercing even. The boy had a quizzical, yet sarcastic look on his face, almost as if Cavort's question made no sense. Maybe it didn't?

"It would be fitting, wouldn't it? I mean it's kind of October already." then the confusion came. Cavort heard the words, but the boy's mouth didn't move. Matter of fact, it was almost as if the words simply showed up in his head as they had before when he was walking through the forest. He raised an eyebrow in question. The boy put a finger on his throat, almost reading Cavort's mind. "Tragic accident as a kid," the boy told him, "can't speak anymore. But, this is my memory. Why would I keep myself as a mute?" the boy then held out his hand. "Name's Gareth, you?"

"Cavort. Feel free to call me Cavy," he said, taking Gareth's hand and shaking amiably. "Glad to see we're not on a kill on sight basis anymore." Gareth gave a slight laugh to that remark, and then shrugged.

"I'd like to think that I can be a friendly person when I want to be," he said, "and then when the forecast calls for the shit to hit the fan, I'll just have to be ready. Though, normally I would like to plan ahead for such a thing." That was fair enough. Cavort could hardly believe it, he'd only been talking to this kid for not even a minute, and he already seemed like a cool person.

"So this is your story in a nutshell, hm?" Cavort had a look around. That was how these artifacts worked. When you used it, you got some of the memories of the alternate soul it coordinated to. "Am I missing something, or... is it just the train station?" he asked, "are we headed outside, or...?" Gareth seemed to utter a sound that was akin to a sigh, somehow without opening his mouth.

"Nope, this is it," he told Cavort, "This is where my story ends, Cavy," he pointed up at the clock, "it's two fifteen right now. at two seventeen, a few guys are going to run in and blow up the station. This is a different kind of place than Gamindustri, Cavy," he looked at Cavort, his face sullen, "It's called Earth, and four days ago, a war broke out. This place we're in now used to be called America. I hear it was a great place that was all about freedom and stuff, but I never got to really learn about it," he pointed at the card on his chest. It had a blue oval and a red thumbs down on it with the numbers '042' written in bold black characters. "My mother was French, and my father was Redonavan, both nations that went to war with this nation here. The nation we're in right now is called Yuunem. It's ancient Sylunic for 'those who are left.' A title usually reserved for members of the military who survive their hardest missions. It's... a lot different than it used to be..." he looked down at the ground. Cavort put his hand on Gareth's shoulder and gave him a pain-sharing smile.

"I know it's hard, but the sooner you tell me, the sooner we're out, right?" Cavort reassured him. Gareth nodded.

"That's how this works..." he sighed again, "Alright, well... everyone here is like me, their people who have the nationalities of warring nations," he pointed over to a couple standing in a line, "those are my folks," he told Cavort, "when the guys run in, my parents are two of the first killed. In a fit of rage, I tried to stop them, but I could only get one before I was shot." He leaned back against the bench, "It's interesting though. I've always had... certain powers. Watch this." he pointed at the clock he'd pointed at before and blew it off the wall with a bolt of energy. "See? that's another reason they're getting rid of me." Suddenly, one of the armed guards yelled at the two of them from across the room. Gareth flipped him the bird, Cavort giggled. Although he giggled, he didn't understand the language.

"The hell did he say?" Cavort asked, "That didn't sound like any language I know. What was that?" Gareth closed his eyes and looked up, as if he was thinking.

"Um... it sounded like 'stupid fucking kids' to me. I'm a little rusty," Cavort rehashed his question as to what language that was. "Oh, yeah, that's a really old language he's speaking it's like... what was it called...?" Gareth put his hand on his chin to think for a moment. "Uh... oh yeah, it's called English. It's only these idiots who speak it anymore though. It was the the chief language of America. I studied it for a bit, it was dumb. Cylic is much better." Cavort nodded in agreement. Cavort then readied his sword and shield. "What are you doing?" Gareth asked.

Cavort looked at him, his eyes suddenly intense. "This might just be a memory, but we can still try to change what happened. Might give you some peace of mind." Gareth smiled.

"I think I quite like that idea, Cavy." Gareth and Cavort stood up, readying themselves.

"When did you say they came in?" Cavort asked.

"Now." And with that the doors flew open, seven or so men running in armed with various weapons. In a display of teamwork and skill, Gareth shot a bolt at Cavort, which he bounced off his shield into the first man, knocking him away, and knocking him out. Gareth then exchanged fire with three others as Cavort charged down the other three, blocking every bullet with his shield. When they both got close enough, they took a wide swing, hitting all three of their targets at once, throwing them towards each other, crashing the guys together, disarming them all.

"Little bit a teamwork," Cavort raised his fist, to which Gareth responded with a bump, "goes a long way, Gary." Gareth smiled at his new nickname. His chest began to glow.

"Looks like that was all we needed," he told Cavort, "See you on the other side, Cavy." Cavort flashed him a peace sign as the light began to blind him once again. He was satisfied with that. Sure, it probably wasn't the whole memory, that seemed way too easy after all, but still, that was satisfying. He took a deep breath as he lost the last of his vision, and waited for the world to return.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, Cavort was sitting, his legs crossed, out in front of the forest. He checked his inventory, confirming that Gareth's bracelet was indeed there. He could even sense Gareth's presence in his head, but now that they were outside Gareth's memory, he remembered that Gareth said he couldn't talk, he probably couldn't anymore now that the world wasn't his to control. He could feel a silent nod as Gareth confirmed his thoughts. "Good to have you along, buddy, so let's get you acquainted to this world." He gently touched the ground with his palm. Jayden didn't have this power, only he and Kale did. Absence still had the sword, so he didn't have to. The ground sparked slightly as Gareth burst into existence, still in his parka and black pants. "Welcome to the world, buddy." Gareth looked around, then back at Cavort. "Yeah, I know... not much, but you were in that shard, you know the story." Gareth nodded. Cavort then turned to leave, but there was an immense amount of energy converging on his position. He braced him self. "You feel that, Gary?" he asked. Gareth was already ready, magic swirling about. The ground exploded in four spots, twice in front of them, twice behind them. Cavort looked forward, Gareth backward. Absence heaved the sword over his shoulder as he and a new boy emerged from the back-facing crater and Kale and another, new boy, emerged from the one In front of them.

The boy with Kale had electrifying yellow eyes, and his hair was slicked back, and dark. Really, he just looked like a taller version of Jayden, but his eyes were scarred. One scar slashed down through his left eye, the other cut up through his right, his eyes turning colour negative where the scars crossed them. He looked familiar... A watch with a black and red band adorned his left wrist. Suddenly, Cavort recognized him.

"Switch?"

Switch nodded. "The one and only, didn't expect to see me did you?" Cavort shook his head, "A madman I may be, but willing to cooperate, is also me... did that make any grammatical sense?" Cavort shook his head again, "didn't think so. Don't care though." he looked over to Absence. "Hey! Ab! Where's Jayden?"

"In good time, brother, but first," he held out a hand towards the boy next to him, "for us, I think we all already know each other, our minds are kind of linked, but still, this here's Lucifer, introduce yourselves." The boy was tall, dark eyed, and dressed in a blue and black suit with dark blue hair neatly combed to the side.

"Pleased to uh... 'meet' you all. I'm sure you all know what I mean." He received general agreement from the group. "There will be explanations later, just know that I'm one of Jayden's alternate souls as well. Let's not sweat the details right now, let's just get moving." The six boys got moving. Jayden was a ways away, and none of them knew exactly where the Deity was. Absence decided not to say anything about his run-in. There wasn't much of a need.

* * *

Jayden was at the crystal. It had taken him a while to find it, but he had indeed found it. It was violet in colour, and it glinted in the setting sunlight. He punched it, shattering it like he had the other one. He grabbed the item. It was a ring of crystal, but he wasn't quite sure what it was, or why it was an artifact. It seemed somehow familiar. The ring seemed to resonate when he held it, slowly rising up, out of his hand, placing itself, hovering just a bit above his head. It pulsed with a slight purple light, and genuine wings, not the paper ones, three pairs, six in total, spread out from his back. He could feel them, the wind rustling through his feathers. Several memories, he wasn't sure where from, flashed through his head. He looked up at the ring above his head. It made a bit more sense now. The wings, the ring of crystal, this was a halo. Looking at it, it was broken, but it certainly belonged to him. He could remember that much. He flapped his wings a bit, getting used to the feeling of having them on his back. It was an intriguing addition, he now had three ways he could fly, either with the book, or Cavort, or now with his own wings. He was getting ready to head back and reconvene with the others, but he remembered the plate of armour in his inventory. He pulled it out and had a look at it. It looked rather old, and seemed to have another function, Jayden just didn't know what it was. He remembered that this was supposedly that one who was supposed to be a monster, but Jayden wasn't sure how much he cared. It was enough to requisite caution, but not enough to merit no at least giving him a chance. He held up the plate of armour, remembering that Cavort had said that it could be used like any other item. Light began to encompass his vision as he began to get slightly dizzy. 'Here we go...' he though to himself. 'Let's do this...'

* * *

It was dark, and kind of musty, but Jayden did his best to ignore that. He looked around. There was a boy, solid black eyes, messy brown hair, about half the length of his own. The boy had several different weights attached to him by chains on his arms and legs, and was dressed in a red jumper, several exclamation points over his chest, a small target over his heart. He shifted uncomfortably, the weights moving about as he did, though the boy didn't seem to notice the actual weights. Jayden looked him up and down. Other than the details already noted, this boy was exactly the same as himself, down to the way he sat. They both sat cross-legged on the bench, the boy seemingly waiting for something. "What are we waiting for?" Jayden asked him.

"Death," he responded, his voice about an octave deeper than Jayden's, yet still smoother, much like the famous actor Gormon Meefran, "I don't mean to sound dreary, but that is indeed what we're waiting for. Or at least, that's all I've got coming up." he turned to Jayden, offering his hand to shake. Somehow, he'd moved his hand over to Jayden, about a foot down the bench, even with the weight on his arm. Jayden was confused but took his hand and shook it, "Name's John, but around here, I'm just prisoner 24602. Feel free to refer to me as either. In all honesty, I almost forgot my actual name was John... heh... guess 30 years of prison will do that to you, huh?" he shrugged. "Hell if I know. All I know is that death is coming soon. Hm... I think it might actually do me good." Jayden was kind of astonished. For what was supposed to be a monster, this boy certainly didn't seem like one. Suddenly, a guard came up to the cell and slammed on the bars.

"Hey, Thief," he called, "now's the time. Come here." John got up and walked to the door, somehow ignoring the ball weights dragging behind him. Jayden got up and followed, seemingly nonexistent, passing through the cell bars and being ignored by the guards. He decided not to question it. They eventually came to a large yard, water crashing against a stone wall, not far away. A large flag, one that Jayden didn't recognize, laid on the ground, attached to a giant wooden rounded beam. The thing was so big it looked like a flag that a giant might hold, and even then, it looked HEAVY. John approached the warden. The warden looked up at him, removing his shackles temporarily.

"One last time," the warden said, "retrieve the flag." John walked over to the beam and crouched, grabbing the beam with both hands. 'there's no way in hell...' the beam began to lift of the ground as John heaved it up and onto his shoulder. Carrying the colossal beam, John slowly carried it back over to the warden. "Post the colours." John turned the beam vertical and slammed it into the ground. The flag now stood upright, the cloth waving in the wind. "Thank you. Now then, good bye." the shackles snapped themselves back onto John's ankles and wrists and he marched himself up onto a platform. "Fire." the warden instructed the guards. They pulled up their weapons and fired at John when all of a sudden, time slowed down. John lashed out his left arm, the ball weight flying out and across, slamming both guards out cold, the chain deflecting the bullets and breaking in the process. John then snapped the weights off his legs and threw his last weight at the warden, presumably killing him in the process.

"Hah... that'll do..." Suddenly Jayden saw the threat behind this boy. Whatever kind of strength he was packing, plus, the guard had called him thief before... There was more to this story... suddenly, his vision flashed black, then burst back in, almost like a screen transition. When he looked, John was sitting at a table, enjoying a meal with a family. Several more transitions followed, flashing images by as Jayden seemed to live a synopsis of John's life. Then, he came across the end of the transitions. John looked out across the world. He was on his knees. Blood slowly flowed across the ground, spreading out from the bodies of various people, his family included. He uttered a scream, pained and monstrous. Jayden could see it now, that was the snapping point. Yet at the same time, Jayden could see where he'd be enraged, his family was dead, most everyone else was dead, not to mention, his childhood had been stolen from him for stealing food to keep his family alive in the first place. Now he'd simply been pushed over the edge, and Jayden was right there with him. As John got ready to scream again, Jayden turned his face upwards and howled into the sky with him. Both of them knew who was behind this. This was the Deity of Sin's handiwork. They looked to each other, locking eyes. "Let's get that bitch." John said. No words were necessary as the two rushed off.

One more transition. They stood before the Deity of Sin. She wasn't in Neptune's body here, but rather in some other poor girl's body. Neptune or no, the Deity was critically injured, as was John, and Jayden could only stand and watch. John delivered the final blow, then looked around, it looked like he was snarling. The Deity dissolved into a glowing orb, and dissipated into the ground. It was an extremely subtle detail, and John didn't seem to notice it. Suddenly, a familiar face showed up. "I've been watching you, you know." The boy said. Jayden knew that voice. "You uh... really like swinging that thing around, don't you?" he pointed to a claw on John's hand. Jayden knew that red hoodie. "Look, I'm sorry about this, I know-" he was cut off, John ripped through him with the equipped claw, knocking the boy's health down to one. The boy, Absence, stood back up, looking at John. "Egh... should've seen that coming. Just another killer, you are." and with that, Absence raised his hand and energy ripped through the floor, John falling to the ground. The plate of armour, the one Jayden had now, fell to the floor. Absence grabbed the plate and threw it away, landing, probably where Jayden had found it, in Celestia. Suddenly, everything went black, then John stood there, face to face with Jayden, about two or three feet apart.

"You've seen my story, you know my past..." he looked down, then looked back up, his eyes solid black again. "You know I'm a monster." he said coldly, "Make your choice. I won't judge you for it. Besides, if you take me as an alternate soul, you won't be able to do your HDD anymore. Think about it, I'm probably the most unworthy person there could be, do you know how many people I killed in my rage?" Jayden looked down, then back at John.

"I can at least give you a chance. I saw what happened." Jayden shrugged. "I'd have probably done the same thing. Didn't know what happened with you and Absence though, that's awkward... " John suddenly chuckled.

"You know, I think that's the first time I've laughed in like... twenty years?" he caught his breath, then stood back straight up. "Think your decision through carefully though, that's a serious drawback I'm giving you."

Jayden shrugged, "But then I have you on my side, and if it happens, then it happens, and we wait for the next timeline." John smiled, a tear sliding down his cheek.

"Thanks, Jay." he said, Jayden not questioning how John already knew his name, he hadn't given it to him before. "See you on the other side then." Reality distorted itself as reality itself returned. Jayden closed his eyes...

* * *

...and when he opened them again, John sat next to him, cross-legged as when they first met. John looked at him. "Guess we got work to do then. Don't worry, I've got the details already." and with that, he dove back into Jayden, becoming another alternate soul. ' _I'll keep my mouth shut, so keep me as a trump card I guess? I dunno, you know what I mean_.' Jayden nodded and was about to move, when his posse showed up. The two "newbies" introduced themselves, though Jayden already knew them. He was happy to see Lucifer again, greeting him with a slap on the back, and generally having a good reunion. Their happiness didn't last long however, as Jayden showed them his new artifact, a power surge flew across the land. They could sense it: the Deity's last challenge. Jayden looked to his group members. They returned to him, becoming his alternate souls, Absence last of all, handing him back Zhen. Absence looked him dead in the face.

"I hope you know what you're doing with that soul." Absence said, his eyes devoid of colour, seemingly on the brink of something akin to rage. Jayden returned his stare.

"I'm the head of this timeline, Ab." he shot back. "So I appreciate the suggestions, comments, and assistance, but in the end," Zhen's blade vanished as Jayden put the hilt in his pocket, the triggers in their outward positions, "This is my timeline. I'll take your help, but the future is mine to decide. I intend to help and save as many people as I can on the way to the end."

Absence sighed and put his hand on Jayden's shoulder. "I'm gonna be honest with you, if you're gonna try and spare the Deity of Sin, don't try and deny it, I know you are, then promise me you'll finish her if she tries anything funny? You're the most hopeful looking candidate we've had since Cavy, and frankly, I think you're doin' a little better than he is, so please... don't throw your life away for someone like that." Jayden looked down, then back at Absence.

"Do you think... she's still somewhere in there?" Absence sighed again, he knew that question was coming. He wasn't sure what to tell Jayden, "If she's not, you can tell me, whatever answer you give me, I can work with."

Absence looked him in the eye. "She is in there somewhere," he said, but raised a finger to Jayden, "but there's not a hope in hell of you gettin' her back. The Deity's grip on her is too strong. Trust me... I know what it feels like to lose a loved one to that monster... But there's no way you can get her back now, so if you really love her.." Absence took Jayden by the shoulders, staring dead into his eyes, making sure he was paying attention, "...end her suffering. I know that if Neptune could talk to you, she'd tell you to end it as fast as you could. She doesn't want to hurt you, so don't make the Deity do that to her." Absence took his hands off Jayden's shoulders, then patted him on the back. "Just so you know, we're all here for you," Jayden nodded, "so don't forget about us." Absence then returned to Jayden, the collective presence of the souls in his head giving him confidence.

"Alright, Deity of Sin..." he balled a fist and his shields burst to life with white, holy, burning flames. His wings spread out, his halo shining purple with vibrancy, his whole body filling with energy. He may not have had Shadow Soul anymore, but he no longer needed it. No longer would he hide behind shadows. He stood straight up, looking quite intimidating, his wings and Halo blazing with energy. Now he had his souls behind him, his strength fully shining through. From now on, his battles were his own. "...I accept your final challenge." Zhen drew itself from his pocket, its blade appearing, the silver blade shining and becoming gold, the blue beam darkening and becoming red.

"Let's rock."

* * *

 **A/N: Wow, that took... significantly less time than the last chapter at least? Also, WHAAAAAAAAT?! WHERE DID LUCIFER COME FROM?! WHAT?! IS UNDYNE COMING BACK?! That's not me making an assumption to reactions either, the friend I have proofread this reacted in that way. Nonetheless, this chapter has an extra-long end-slate, so don't worry, answers will come in time. So first, let's go to the summarization for the people I 'introduced' in this chapter.**

 **So How about Lucifer? I see he's back? Well here we go, this is the short version.** So first off, Yes, you read that correctly. Lucifer was originally a timeline of Jayden, the reason for him being a fire demon was because he escaped from hell, but was unable to recover his body. After having met himself in the star-shower, forming a pact with himself just gave Jayden the skills Lucifer had in that timeline, so Lucifer is not that much different than Jayden is normally. Lucifer has the ability to morph into different creatures that are made of black and blue flames such as the pyro-wolf from chapter six. Lucifer originally was originally Noire's body guard in his own timeline, thus why his flames burn black. After the Deity asserted himself on his timeline, Lucifer failed in his duties and Noire was killed by the Deity of Sin in his Timeline. Lucifer attempted to hunt down Noire's murderer, but failed to take her down himself. Seeking the aid of Absence (hey, connections to my own storyline :D), he tried once more, but the two of them together could only wound her for a later timeline to finish off. Lucifer is partially ethereal, giving him the ability to phase through certain physical attacks and also hover for a time. His ethereal status also reduces the damage he takes from physical attacks and severely cuts magical damage he takes. Lucifer does, however, have the unfortunate drawback of burning through energy very quickly, even to just hold a transformed state, without even acting upon anything in said state. When Lucifer is in control, Jayden's streak of hair turns black and his eyes cycle through cool colours. Lucifer does not wield Jayden's two shields, rather using either a spear or an ax that he can summon from flames. Fun facts include that: Lucifer's favorite colour is bright white, particularly the kind of white that Noire's hair turns when transformed, and his favorite flavor is, intriguingly, mint, also Lucifer really likes bunnies, especially brown ones. **And... yeah, that's the short version... In case it wasn't clear, the definition of summary is less than clear to me.**

 **So now, I took care of Lucifer's summary, how about I take care of Switch's?** So now, Switch is actually based extremely loosely off of Lethal League's Switch (Insert gravity joke here) I'm not even joking about this, sometimes I wish I was, but you know what? I don't even at this point. The previously named future Jayden was an almost direct copy of Jayden himself, but didn't have the same determination and drive as Jayden did. Later, Switch almost lost his life in a battle with CFW Magic, not having enough drive to defeat her and retreating to consult his past self after ASIC had used the Deity of Sin to destroy the world. When consulting his past self, Switch becomes very conflicted and has to make the decision to replace his past self in order to save him timeline. In doing so, they create the hundreds of other timelines and the rest of the story line. Switch can mess with the processing of the world by just thinking about it, and the shoes he wears can attract the ground, allowing him to stand on walls and ceilings, even if he's standing on top of something, such as riding a skateboard. Switch can also use the anomalies seen briefly in chapter ten to work the battle field to his advantage. Almost like a turbo boost, it forces anything inside of it in a certain direction. Switch can also lay a neutral anomaly and perform a combo inside of it. If an enemy is later hit into the anomaly, it will take damage and have force applied as if the combo had been performed on it. If you want a visual representation, look for the Kirby character that goes by the name of Aege. Aege's power is much like Switch's anomaly skill, and that's what it looks like, right down to the energy arrow afterimage left behind when he uses it to move himself. Switch is one of few souls that still use Jayden's shields. Switch uses them better than Jayden can however, and possesses the ability to control the shields in midair, being able to control them up to four miles away. He can also recall the shields from wherever they are, much like Thor's Mjolnir and the way Jayden can recall Zhen. When Switch is in control, Jayden's eyes and streak of hair turn yellow. Switch's favorite colour is citrus yellow and his favorite flavor is Electric Lemon. Also, Switch is actually a foot taller than Jayden, which kind of pisses Jayden off because he expects to get that tall, but never does. Do me a favor, don't mention that around him for me... **So there you go.**

 **And finally, I almost forgot about Gareth, but that's because he didn't say anything.  
** **Gareth: ...  
** **24: My point exactly, there's much less of a summary for Gareth:** Incapable of any form of speech, Gareth is the stereotypical silent and strong type. Possessing magical skill much more than over ten times Jayden's normal capacity, Gareth is capable of facing multiple enemies at once without paying attention to them. Gareth is also incapable of running, relying on others to move quickly. The extent of Gareth's ability to move quickly is a quick teleportation skill called a blinke, or a variation of Absence's Afterimage Phasing, called an Afterflash. This is also the skill that Jayden utilizes in Chapter Eleven to pass MAGES.' final test. Afterflash is an incredible burst of speed and is impossible to visibly track, the only way to see where he went with it is to look at the afterimages left after the skill has been used. Gareth mostly remains backseat for Jayden, never really fronting, but when he does, Jayden's hair and eye colour will be orange. Fun facts for Gareth: favorite colour is actually blue, favorite flavor is orange, no shocker there, and the odd fact about Gareth is that he has a debilitating fear of the dark for no reason other than not being able to see what is there. **Does Gareth seem like an afterthought? I guess he was the most recently created. That's my fault. Sorry Gareth.  
Gareth: ...  
24: Okay... I'll leave you to that... ( _He's just sitting there, i swear it's impossible to read that kid!_ )**

* * *

 **So is there anyone I'm forgetting at this point? If so I really am forgetting them at them moment...**

 **Jayden: Did you do Gareth's summary?**

 **24:Yes, I did Gareth's summary! Matter of fact I almost forgot his... but still, I remembered that. Am I forgetting anyone? I did Gareth, Lucifer, and Switch, those are the only ones, right?**

 **Jayden: Yeah, you're done with the whole character summary thing, we just need to do the FAQ thing now.**

 **24: Ah... alright then... You wanna take care of that for me?**

 **Jayden: Sure, am I doing comment questions, or...?**

 **24: Well, we answered to basically every question currently in the comments, so let's just do the ones that our concept readers gave us. Here's the papers.**

 **Jayden: Sure, let's do this:**

* * *

 **Q:** So this chapter seems to leave out a lot of details, like... you only did Gareth's backstory.  
 **A:** Yes, the reason for that is, is due to the fact that 1. We posted the summary of the characters' backstories, if not provided in the chapter, in the character summary over there. Also because it would've put too much strain on 24 to try and work that in. He's at his limit already. I'm not kidding, he has bags under his eyes and shit, that's why I'm taking care of this for him.

 **Q:** How does that title work in? The Mage, the madman, and the monster?  
 **A:** Yeah, we could've done a better job with that. It's supposed to be implied that Gareth is the Mage, Switch is the Madman, and John is the Monster. They're also introduced in that order, so yeah? I guess that was the plan? He neglects to tell me these things. We are actually two separate people him and I, please keep that in mind when asking us questions...

 **Q:** How did you decide to bring Lucifer back?  
 **A:** My guess is that he never really left. The other alternate souls are all supposed to have once been me, or the story that this was going to be so...? I would guess that at some point, 24's plan was to make me a demon, and my name was going to be Lucifer. That would explain Lucifer's introduction and the odd way in which we part, as well as how he's back here now. Never knew Luke was a Noire-devotee though... I could put him on, but his guess is as good as mine.

 **Q:** ARE YOU HYPED FOR FIRE EMBLEM FATES?!  
 **A:** THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TOPIC AT HAND, BUT YES! I SO AM! 24 AND I ARE GONNA PICK IT UP ON THE WAY HOME FROM SCHOOL TOMORROW! IT'SGONNABEGREAT!I'MSOEXCITED,YOUHAVENOIDEA!I'MGONNAPLAYTHEGAMETOCOMPLETIONASSOONASI'VEGOTIT,ANDTHENWE'REGONNAMAKECUSTOMUNITS,ANDMAKETHEBESTTEAMSEVERWITHALLTHEDLCSKILLSAND... *sigh* that's really incomprehensible isn't it...? sorry... I'm really excited. 24 and I have been waiting for this game ever since the first Fire Emblem came out in Japan. Not only a remake in the proper language, but the one that comes after which brushes up all the fine details from the first one. You know what I mean right? Yeah, I'm sure ya do.

 **Q:** What was that language thing? You're speaking Sylunic, or Cylic, or... I'm reading this, it looks like English? Also what are Redonavan and Yuunem?  
 **A:** Okay... I think that explanation is mostly spoilers, so I'm gonna hold off on answering that for the most part. The answer I will provide you with is that you have to remember that Gamindustri are astronomically different. Like, different solar systems and stuff. So, different languages, different effects and stuff. You know. Space junk.

 **Q:** If they're such different places in terms of astronomy, then shouldn't Gareth be affected a lot more by the change in gravity and stuff?  
 **A:** Okay, I got this one. Redonavans are aliens, there's your answer to that question. Redonavans are widely renowned as the most adaptable species in the known spectrum of species and peoples in all recorded knowledge. So he's really just adapting to everything as he goes. Trust me though, you'll see what happens when a human goes to Gamindustri, 24 and I have that planned for later. Just don't tell him I told you so! **;D**

 **Q:** How about this raw fish?  
 **A: TAKE EVERYTHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!**

 **So at this point, I think 24 wanted to do the thing where he did the side-chats with the goddesses, but he's stone cold out... *pokes 24's face* yeeeeeah... toooootally out... So... I guess I'll take care of it?**

* * *

 **So, only Blanc and Uni were awake, and Blanc didn't want to talk to me, and I haven't technically met either of them yet. Nonetheless, Uni did agree to talk to me. So he we go.**

 **Here's a side chat with Uni:**

 **Uni:** So remind me what you are again?

 **Jay:** I think we're still pending on that one. I'll let you know when I find out.

 **Uni:** Um... right... so there was something I wanted to ask you, Jayden.

 **Jay:** Go right ahead, I'd love to give you an answer if I can, Uni.

 **Uni:** Right, so what's with that broken Halo of yours? You never actually have it above your head, you just keep it on your arm like that. How does that work?

 **Jay:** Oh this? Well, from what I can remember, which, I have to apologize, isn't much, it's actually made of Viral Sharicite.

 **Uni:**...

 **Jay:** Right... that was a shit explanation, how do I put this... Um... Oh, here we go, I got it. So the Halo's broken because I'm clumsy and these things happen. But, because the Halo's made of Viral Sharicite, it makes it easier for me to work with shares, and I can even use share energy. Does that make a little more sense?

 **Uni:** I think so... So if you can use Share Energy, is that what makes you able to fly?

 **Jay:** Well no, that would be, here we go, my wings.

 **Uni:** Wait, when did you get wings?

 **Jay:** A while ago. But yeah. Six wings, more stability, the Share energy does help though. It makes it so that I don't actually have to propel myself, I can mainly just glide, and I don't have to worry about running out of stamina in midair. It also powers up my magic and allows me to give extra support buffs to CPUs and Candidates like yourself.

 **Uni:** Okay, I get it now. So what do we do now.

 **Jay:** Um... ( _My word, that is close... why did she sit so close to me? she's practically in my lap here...)_ not much else to do. This was the last part of the chapter for today, so we can just chill now, thanks for agreeing to talk to me by the way. I know 24 would've been upset if I hadn't put something like this in.

 **Uni:** Sure thing. Only since you were begging and all, though.

 **Jay:** ( _And now she's leaning on me... I think I need an adult...)_ Yeah, yeah, if that's how you wanna phrase it, we'll put it that way.

 **Uni:** You know Jayden, it might not be my place to say it, but sitting here with you really makes me feel safe, like... you know what I mean? It just makes me feel more secure when you're around.

 **Jay:** ( _So that's why. That makes a little more sense._ ) Well, that might be mainly due to my Share effects, like I said before, but I'm glad I make you feel that way. It beats the alternative for certain. Feel free to think of me as an older brother if you want to.

 **Uni:** Older brother? Aren't I older than you?

 **Jay:** You're two years younger than Nepgear, yes?

 **Uni:** Yes...?

 **Jay:** When Histoire found me on the porch at one years old, Nepgear had literally been born from Sharicite four days ago. So technically, I'm older than all of you candidates. more so, I'm not even relatively much younger than the CPUs.

 **Uni:** Hm... Good to know. I think?

 **Jay:** Let's roll with that.

 **Uni:** Yeah... I think I will have you as my big brother, if you don't mind. But... it doesn't really matter what you think, I could do it anyway if I wanted to!

 **Jay:** Uni, if you're treating me as your big brother, you don't have to be tsun with me. Besides, I already know what you're like underneath that, so really, I think we're beyond that, no?

 **Uni:** Uh. Yeah... okay, you're right. Thanks, Jayden.

 **Jay:** No problem, Uni.

 **I guess we'll count that as a _lily rank up!_**

* * *

 ** _That's all folks!_**

 **I hope you all have a lovely evening, and I'll see you in Chapter 17 and the End of Arc one!**


	17. The Final Hour

**A/N: So here we are again, just me and you, Hero, right?**

 **You should be prepared because soon...**

 **YOUR LAST HOUR STRIKES**

 **That aside, Welcome to the end of story-Arc 1. Just to let anyone who cares know, I will probably be taking a chill on this story after I complete this because, if anyone reads NENENEP, or read it while it was still in production, I talked to the author and, depending on what he says and if he gives me his approval, I may be continuing that story to a point! Also, I got both copies of the new Fire Emblem. _MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM_ SO GOOD. Birthright? _Fffffffffff_ uck your easy route, gimme dat Conquest doh. Anways, I was kind of startled how similar Birthright and Conquest were to Arc two of the story. Now, I'm not just saying that so I can copy the story line, it IS different. But if anyone's played that game yet, you'll pick up on the similarities. Keep in mind, I wrote this story, get ready for this, in 2012. Yeah. Four years ago. I've taken a lot of bits and pieces here and there and turned them inside out and put them into this story to try and make it better. Anyway, here it is: Chapter 17, and The End of This World.**

* * *

With an earth-shattering slam, Jayden landed before the Deity of Sin. She faced the other way, gazing off the edge of Celestia, her eyes closed. Neither of them said anything at first, simply standing one apart from the other. She turned to him, opening her bloodied eyes. "This is it." he told her, his halo, now around his shoulder, equipped like a pauldron, blazing with light. Interestingly enough, he couldn't sense any sort of contempt radiating from her as he had before. The atmosphere quite closely resembled a casual meeting between friends. This was obviously not the case, but the Deity made no attempt to change the atmosphere, nor threaten him. Rather, she simply stood there, in an almost welcoming, and EXTREMELY unnerving manner. Jayden had half a mind to GTFO right then and there, he wasn't good with horror stuff, he'd jump if someone popped out of a closet and said 'boo.'

"FIRST MOVE IS YOUR'S..." the Deity hacked, "LET US SEE IF YOU ARE TRULY CAPABLE OF SAVING THIS WORLD." It was interesting. Though the Deity was a being of Malicious intent and Destructive mind, it spoke to him with some semblance of respect. Almost as if he'd already put it in its place once before.

'The first form of the Deity of Sin is completely land based, therefore, taking to the air would be very helpful.' Absence noted.

"Good... Cavy, you're up." The proper colours shifted into place for Cavort's entrance.

"Then Let's dance." Cavort responded. Cavort's eyes turned yellow and he held one hand up, slowly lifting off the ground as energy built up. "Let's see what she does about this..." The energy began to spin, generating a burning wind, moving faster than twice what most hurricanes and tornadoes could hope to move. Cavort had started with his strongest move:

 **"Sirocco!"**

He unleashed the ball of wind and energy directly at the Deity where she stood. It tore up the ground, releasing catastrophic damage upon its target, blowing away most everything in its path. When the wind and energy cleared, the Deity still stood, but that was to be expected. That move was only to take down her health. The Deity scowled up at Cavort, clearly that had done more damage than she had expected it to do. Jayden looked at her health. She was already down another three bars. They had to keep attacking, surely she couldn't keep coming up with new ones forever. To counterattack, she rushed straight at Cavort.

 **"Cross Combo!"**

Cavort's eyes now turned green as he three his hands to the sides. When the blade would have almost gotten to him, it stopped in midair and bounced back. His magic shield must have been strong enough to repel the blade then? Not something they were going to question. Cavort burst his energy shield, throwing the Deity back, and preparing another attack. He lashed his right arm out, throwing first one blade of wind, then several more following in its path. As the Deity attempted to fly around and avoid these attacks, it found itself unable to evade anything as the blades relentlessly pursued their target. Soon enough, Cavort had shaved off as many as seven health bars, resulting in ten in total. Whenever she charged, he would throw up the shield, then burst it and throw her back. After hours upon hours of fighting, it was possible to see nothing beyond the Deity's health bar. She was on her last one. As a result, however, the Deity got fed up and threw out another SP attack.

 **"Critical Edge!"**

Cavort's shield came up, but she paused before she got to him. He shattered his shield, but she dodge the blow and resumed her assault, the attack connecting into a painful amount of damage. Somehow, Cavort had managed to hang on with a single point of HP. ' _Cavy, switch out, let someone else take the lead from there_.' Jayden told him, ' _We're all here, let's use that to our advantage_.' "One second, I got something else I want to say to her." he fired back. ' _What could be so important that_ -'

 **"Dying Blaze!"**

Cavort threw one hand up, flames blasting outwards, enveloping, grabbing, and throwing the Deity back, slamming her into the floor, leaving her burned and incapacitated. The last of her health bar was gone. She was dead.

Or so it seemed.

The Deity's body shattered into pixels, but the pixels flew off somewhere, instead of dissipating like they normally did. "Okay... Now someone can take over if they want to..." Cavort managed.

' _Wait, didn't you just finish her off_?' Jayden inquired.

"Not at all. She can come back several times. We're not even sure how many." Cavort told him, Jayden's spirit dropping again.

' _The most we've gotten to is five times around. That's one, so we have at least four more times around_.' Absence reported, ' _This time around, she'll mostly be in the air, mainly focusing on ranged attacks, so we're gonna need a heavy hitter from a distance. Seeing as she's focusing on magic, expect her resistance to be through the roof, but her physical defense might be downed because of that. Kale, sounds like your time to shine._ ' The hair streak shifted to green, the eyes quickly following.

"Let's dance then." Kale drew back his bow, five arrows knocked into it. Jayden wasn't sure how this was going to work, he'd never seen Kale fight before. As the Deity came back into view, she was indeed flying, and had some kind of attack charged. "Let's try this..."

" **Radial Pierce!** "

The arrows flew from the bow, spinning in a circular pattern, each arrow connecting with a significant impact, knocking the Deity from the air. "This is probably going to be a cycle of one soul to one form of the Deity." Kale said, "so someone be ready to switch in when I go down."

' _DID SOMEBODY SAY SWITCH?!_ ' I'll let you guess as to who said that.

"Anyone will do, just make sure you understand what the Deity will be like when you go up against her." Kale switched to Light Arrows, such that he could counter the attacks as they came his way. Both opponents stood exactly still, crazy amounts of energy and attacks flying between them, neither one actually getting hit, nor landing a hit. Finally, Kale drew back an arrow that seemed much more powerful than the rest. "Let's try a limit breaker..." He drew the bow back as far as it would go, then jumped up, about as high as the Deity was, and let the arrow fly at her.

" **Light Shock!** "

The arrow connected, directly in the Deity's left eye, driving through, shattering her to pixels, the pixels retreating again. "There we go."

' _Flawless takedown, very nice_.' Jayden commented. ' _Now, since you didn't take damage, why don't you try to take out some of her health on the next run before you switch out_?'

"Sounds good to me." Kale responded.

' _This form is just a more balanced version of the last one_.' Absence noted, ' _you might even be able to take this one out without much difficulty_.' Kale sighed.

"Why'd you have to say that? Watch me get one sho-" The Deity had come back quicker than they had expected, and now Kale was on the ground, well over five sixths of his health gone. "Fuck... told you..." The hair streak shifter to yellow, the eyes following suit. Jayden's body sprang backwards, up onto its feet.

"Alright, I got this one." It was Switch now. Switch summoned Zhen to his hand, and turned Zhen into two shields, one from the energy, one from the metal. "Watch me." The small weight dropped off his watch, still attached to the thin thread. Switch began to spin this thread rapidly. "Let's dance, Deity." he said to her. She lunged at him, but an anomaly held her back as Switch grabbed her sword with the thread and pulled it away, disarming her, and swinging the weight back, the thread actually cutting her when it contacted her shoulder.

' _So that's how that works..._ ' Jayden thought to himself. Watching Switch battle the Deity was like an extremely intense dancing session. The two spun around, whirling, and twirling, exchanging blows as they went. It was also akin to watching two tornadoes try to wrestle each other, or two spinning tops crashing into each other. He wondered how Switch could possibly keep track of all that was happening. They were moving so quickly, spinning so rapidly, that Jayden was, admittedly, getting a bit dizzy. With a final crash, Switch launched the Deity back, the Deity slamming into a tree. In the meantime, Switch opened an empty anomaly and performed a series of combos in it, then it went invisible. Jayden couldn't be sure why he'd done that, but now didn't seem like the time to ask. The Deity charged, Switch spinning off to the side, narrowly avoiding the hit. When she came back around, he moved out of the way, and she flew into the anomaly that he'd laid earlier. She was being thrown around as if Switch was performing the earlier-made combo on her, just much faster. When the Deity was thrown out the side, Switch landed a literally-blazing uppercut, burning the deity and sending her skywards. When she came back down, Switch spun the weight and lashed out twice, the thread passing effortlessly through the Deity's body, slicing her into thirds. Instead of this actually happening, she simply burst into pixels for the third time. Switch slammed his fists together.

"There's three down." He said.

' _Next form doesn't suit you so well, Switch_.' Absence told him, " _it's mainly speed, and faster than you can handle_.' Switch nodded.

"Then I'll give her hell while I'm still standing." Silently, Gareth cued up to take Switch's place, and Switch braced himself for the Deity's return. When she finally did return, Switch had recovered all of his SP. He looked ready and raring to go, as if he'd only just started. The Deity rushed up faster than was possible to track, and although Switch took a hit, he tanked through said strike, and began to engage in extremely close combat with the Deity, tearing each other apart. When the two separated, they were both down to their last hit points. Switch stared her down, the Deity returning the gesture, but sure enough, the Deity fell first. Switch changed out, Gareth taking the lead, the hair streak and eyes turning to orange. The Deity took a while to burst into pixels. 'Alright, I took down two, don't let me show you up, Gary.' Switch said.

"..." As everyone expected, Gareth said nothing, merely charging the air around him. The Deity came up over the trees, followed by multiple copies of herself, there must have been hundreds.

' _Hope you've got some good crowd skills, Gary_.' Absence noted. Gareth silently nodded, and, without further of anything, he went absolutely nuts, flames, bolts, water balls, stones, entire trees, minerals, air blades, whatever was around, went flying at the army of Deities. Gareth somehow maintained precision with all of this, each shot marking a copy of the Deity bursting into pixels. Only one got close enough to land a hit, and Gareth lurched forward, headbutting the copy into pixels. After what seemed like twenty minutes of intensity, Gareth dropped his arms back to his sides, and stood across from an empty field, ravaged by all the spells he'd just thrown into it. Gareth stood silently, waiting for the Deity to return. None of the alternate souls, nor Jayden made any sort of remark at the display of power that Gareth had just put on. It was almost entertaining how easily he'd reduced their strongest enemy to nothing more than a crowd control event. The Deity landed in the field and pulled up a gun of some sort, it looked like a rifle, and emptied the clip at Gareth. Gareth just sort of left. One moment, he was standing in the way, the next moment, he was all the way on the other side of the Deity. He sighed quietly, raising his arms up and charging a ball of energy, then lobbing it at the Deity. When it connected, all that could be seen was enormous amounts of endless explosions. When they cleared, the Deity was gone again. ' _That's five cleared_.' Absence said. ' _Lucifer, you've got the best chance against a new one_.' Lucifer took the head, the hair streak changing to black, the eyes cycling through cool colours such as blues and purples. Lucifer summoned, first, a spear made of blue flames, then an ax of the same material. He spun both weapons effortlessly, waiting for the Deity to come. It took a while, but when it came back, the Deity had projected its energy into a larger form, basically taking the form of a giant energy golem. Luckily, Lucifer had some tricks up his sleeves.

Utilizing the same powers exhibited in Chapter 6, Lucifer assumed the form of a dragon, with surging black and blue flames in place of scales. This was by far, the largest scale battle yet. Cavort had been all over the place, and Gareth had taken on hundreds of the Deity at once, but even Cavort's Sirocco and Gareth's Finale Burst didn't match this kind of...

 ** _scale_.**

Claws and blades met as the two giants went at each other, bashing, slashing, and tearing at each other in a display of immense strength and absolute rage. At one point, the Deity almost beheaded Lucifer, her blade nearly missing his throat, but she wasn't paying attention to him as a result. His tail whipped around, catching the side of her head. It was a vicious and less honorable tactic, but at the time, and in this situation, honor meant nothing. Taking the opportunity, Lucifer brought his tail down, ending that phase and form. He reverted back to his human form, breathing heavily. "Alright, that's ALL my SP, absolutely GONE. I need someone to take over after all that." Absence got himself ready. He, John, and Jayden were the only ones left in fighting condition. Absence shifted in, hair and eyes shifting to blue. John and Jayden watched as the others recovered. When the Deity landed once more, standing across from him, she smiled.

"THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR..." she said in her demonic voice, "A REAL CHALLENGE... ENOUGH WITH MY WEAKER FORMS... LET'S ENJOY THIS TO THE FULLEST..." she hissed out her words as she looked at Absence. He didn't even flinch as her energy filled the surrounding area.

' _She must have been holding back that entire time?!_ ' Jayden thought to himself, slightly panicking. Absence spoke, his voice unwavering.

"I've put you in your place once, lady... I'll do it again." he retorted. He didn't seem to be joking anymore. "So I've given you the spiel already, so I'll keep it quick." he cleared his throat. "Today is a new day, you have the choice to inspire awe in your own way: you can be awful, or awesome. I think I'll go with awesome, and as for you? Well, I think that question hardly needs asking. I... no... we, are gonna put you down, here and now. So prepare yourself," his energy spiked, at least to what the Deity's energy was, maybe even higher. His eyes flushed black, small, red, pin-point dots in the center, standing in place of pupils. "Retribution has arrived." Without further words, the two went at each other. It was, by far, the most intense fight Jayden had ever watched, and he was having trouble keeping track of it. Absence was impossible to see, only traceable by the many afterimages flashing here and there as Lunar Drakes and energy beams rocked the battlefield. Suddenly, he was in front of the Deity, going head to head with her, exchanging strikes so quickly it looked like they might have been dancing. He fought with his hands, but somehow managed to keep from taking damage, after all, if he was taking damage, with the strength of the Deity behind the attacks, it would have been VERY apparent. With a spin and an over head strike, Absence shattered her guard meter and lashed out, stabbing straight forward, Zhen appearing in his hand having taken the peculiar form of an energy knife, the back of the blade lined with the sonic silver, and he plunged the knife directly into her chest, aiming with precision to strike at her heart. Her mouth gaped open, as if registering that she'd taken the hit. She looked at him, her eyes locking with his. She brought her blade up in a last ditch attempt to land a hit, but Absence seemed to already be prepared for that, bringing one hand up and catching the blade with an open palm. Somehow he took no damage from it, some combination of the Deity's waning strength in this body, and his own readiness. No matter the reason, she fell to the ground, bursting into pixels once more. Absence's breathing was heavy, he seemed to be at his limit. "Alright... if we wanna get through this... and I'm talkin' specifically to YOU," he indicated John, "Then we gotta do this together." John readied himself. "I've never tried this before, for all I know, we'll wind up getting stuck together for the rest of time." He warned them.

' _I'd rather lose my identity trying to redeem myself than lose everything because I was too scared to try._ ' John said boldly. Jayden readied himself, but John stopped him, ' _You're the main for this timeline. If you fall here, then this timeline has no chance in the future_.' Suddenly, Jayden felt hurt. The alternate souls had been switching in such a way to avoid him being at the front. They had no intention of letting him fight here, and there was no room to make that kind of decision. Despite that, he remained out of the fray.

"Let's do this thing." He grabbed Zhen, the blade resuming its titan blade form and charging with the energy of both John and Jayden's souls. Absence slammed the blade downwards, into the ground. His eye's and hair darkened as the two fused powers and got ready to take on the deity at her full strength. The deity landed before them, a grin spreading across her face.

"OH THAT'S A DIRTY TRICK..." she said, her menacing tone still unnerving. He stood against her, unwilling to give up. "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LET ME HAVE MY FUN? YOU SHOULD JOIN ME. WE WOULD HAVE SO MUCH FUN TOGETHER..." He spat on the ground in front of her in response. "UGH... FINE... YOU MAKE THIS SO HARD FOR ME." She charged at him, going for an overhead swing. He brought the blade up, blocking the strike with his blade perpendicular to hers. She forced her blade down with all her strength, but he managed to hold strong. It seemed like the two were merely standing her, but in reality, this was the greatest battle yet. Standing completely still while maintaining enough strength to hold the other back was visibly draining both of them. Suddenly, John's strength surged forth, and threw the Deity back, her arms in the air, her guard wide open. Zhen shifted into a katana-like blade and, like a stereotypical ninja move, he rushed through her, his blade out on the other side. The slash only registered when he sheathed his blade a moment afterwards, the deity falling to the ground, clutching her torso. Instead of bursting into pixels, she dissolved this time, slowly, but the end result was the same. She came back as she always did, and he struck her down again. And again, and again, and again, Jayden quickly losing count as to how many times he'd struck her down. His health was very quickly depleting though, and soon enough, they wouldn't be able to keep this up anymore. Sure enough, she landed the fated strike. Absence and John separated and both of them fell from the front, Jayden inserting himself into place. He stared her down. "THERE HE IS..." she almost cooed, "THE LITTLE HERO OF THIS TIMELINE... SHOW ME YOUR STRENGTH. PUT ACTION AND POWER BEHIND YOUR WORDS. SHOW ME YOU ARE TRULY A HERO, OR DIE TRYING!" She charged at him faster than he could anticipate and knocked his health down to a dangerous amount. He managed to stand his ground. "PATHETIC. ONE HIT IS ALL IT TAKES TO FELL THE HERO OF HIJINKS? I'M DISAPPOINTED." He made a desperate attempt to stay standing, though he was already at the end of his strength. Maybe this truly was the end. Maybe he stood no chance against the Deity of Sin after all. She WAS an ancient monster, so it kind of made sense, he was just a boy trying to do the right thing. Suddenly, he heard a voice. It was familiar.

" _Jayden... Jayden!_ " it called out to him, " _Please! I'm not in control anymore! Do what you have to in order to kill the Deity that's controlling me!_ " it was Neptune. And more so, it was a cry for help. " _I'm still back here, and I'm being forced to watch this... Please... I can't watch myself hurt you anymore..._ " This was out of character for Neptune, but that was out of pain and suffering. Jayden's breathing went funny for a moment. A cry for help... a girl in the rain... This situation was a little too familiar to him. He'd failed the first time. _He was determined not to fail the second_ , _but what could he do_? Another voice spoke to him, different than both Neptune and the Deity, yet also female, such that it was someone new. Time paused and the world looked like it was on parchment paper as it spoke to him.

"My son... My one and only son... You think you are running out of time..." He could only agree with that, but the woman's voice sighed. She spoke again, " Time is free, but it is also priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it." He wasn't sure he understood what she was getting at. "Once you've lost it, you can never get it back. Unless," unless? Unless what? "you have an exception. You are an exception, Jayden. You will learn in time..." the voice slowly faded and the world began to move again, the parchment look fading, and clocks ticking and showing up and leaving from his vision until the world settled where it was. The Deity still stood across from him. He would end it. This time... This... time? Time... That's what she was getting at, but what did it mean? The Deity jumped up, bringing her blade over her head, and Jayden's heartbeat slowed. It seemed to be happening in slow motion. Or... Was it happening in slow motion? Jayden walked out of the way, moving in normal time, but the Deity moving at a fraction of a fraction of the speed she was before. Since he had time, he summoned Zhen's titan blade form to his hand and countered her skill with a powerful cut. He also realized that he'd swung at normal speed for himself, but for the Deity, that slash was about a thousand times faster. The one strike cleaved her body into pixels and time returned to normal. The Deity landed once more, a wicked grin plastering her face. She seemed to realize that Jayden had learned something. Jayden still wan't entirely sure how this worked, but he knew that it was a very powerful skill if he could get control of it. The woman spoke to him again, "Time can be many things. It can be knowledge, it can be money, and it can even be a safety window. For you, time is a shield. It is a weapon and a tool. It is your best friend, and your ability to watch your back. Most of all, for you, time is power. As goes with all power, use it wisely." Jayden nodded even though her voice was inaudible to anyone but him. Jayden's heartbeat seemed to indicate his perception of time. He always perceived it as beating normally, but if it sped up or slowed down, so did time. His heartbeat remained slightly slow, just quickly enough to look normal, but still slow enough that all of his attacks carried an extra impact, and the Deity was much easier to avoid. After what seemed like twenty minutes to him, but could very well have been just one or two, he'd landed several solid hits on the Deity. The demonic grin hadn't left her face, and she seemed to have a plan.

"I TIRE OF THIS... LET'S SPEED THIS UP A BIT. HOW WILL YOU HANDLE ALL OF MY REMAINING FORMS COALESCED INTO ONE? LET'S SEE." She raised her arms up, and phantom images coming to a point in her palm before she absorbed the energy into her body. At first it looked like nothing had happened, but Jayden knew better than that. What she had done, was taken every form she would have had, which could have been any number, and condensed all of the power into this one form. Her aura seemed to shake the ground with its energy. His pulse quickened, but only slightly. He remained confident in himself. As she rushed at him again, time slowed, and slowed, and eventually, came to a standstill. He inspected the Deity, seemingly at a standstill. He noted that she was, actually, moving very slowly, just barely enough to notice with the utmost attention and focus to detail. Since he had the chance, and she'd been so courteous as to funnel all of her forms into one, he decided that now was the time to end this proper. He summoned Zhen to his hand, and a storm began to brew. He drew back the blade, the beam shining brighter than it ever had before, the silver quaking, ready to slash its target in half. The blade charged with Jayden's determination, the energy making the aura around the blade pulse with incredible power. He brought the blade up.

 **"Rising Break Cutter!"**

The blade almost passed through the Deity's body like the air around it, only the faintest resistance available. Jayden watched with satisfaction, allowing time to return to normal, as health bar after health bar drained and shattered, eventually cleaving a quarter of the bars off. The Deity lay on the ground, the storm overhead raging with pulses of energy. Jayden pulled up Zhen, ready to finish this.

 _ **"Time for the Grand Finale!"**_

He sprang up into the air, twirling around like a drill, raising Zhen skyward at the apex of the jump. A bolt of raw energy from the heavens lit up the sky, surging into Zhen, the blade pulsing with over a thousand times its normal strength. With the blade charged, he spun one more time, driving the blade downwards, slamming it through the Deity's body, and eventually through the ground. He flipped backwards, removing the sword and himself from the immediate proximity, and the Deity slowly staggered to her feet. He stared her down, Zhen returning to a handle and returning to his pocket. His alternate souls seemed to still lack the strength to speak. He looked at the Deity, only possessing a single health bar now. It almost seemed anti-climactic, how quickly he'd finished that, but it still wasn't over. "So sorry." he told the Deity, "You maybe Neptune, but you're no longer the one I loved." He charged up energy in his left hand, getting ready to deal the finishing blow. Suddenly, her expression changed, the new expression was much the same as one that Neptune always made. It was the face she made when she was afraid, or confused. The sight of it made him hold back the attack, leaving her with one single hit point out of luck. She shrieked when it hit her, genuinely in pain. Now it was his turn to be confused. What had just happened? She curled up on the ground, now in her human form, crying. He reeled back slightly, completely confused. Consulting his alternate souls yielded no avail.

' _Something's gone wrong here_.' It was John speaking, ' _they've gone somewhere, and I'm not sure where, but we can't talk to them_.' Jayden nodded slowly. Suddenly, Neptune called out for help, from people that he was fairly certain she had already killed. His brow furrowed, confusion now evident on his face. Was this some kind of sick joke? He walked over to her cautiously. She reached up to him, tears in her eyes.

"Jay... What... what's going on?" she asked him. He looked at her, his own tears in his eyes.

"Those people you were calling for just now? They're dead already. You made sure of that." She looked up at him like he had three heads.

"What do you mean? I didn't hurt anyone! I was just..." he looked at her health bar. It had the normal pool of Neptune's HP points, not the full, domineering, force of the Deity's HP pool. It was extremely puzzling.

"You're... not the Neptune I was about to finish... are you?" he asked her. She looked at him, her face blank. "Right, one sec." he used his airbrush ring and drew a circle around her.

" **Heal Stroke 1** \-  Soothing Burst."

Energy swirled around her, her health quickly returning. She gave a sigh of relief. "There we go. What were you doing before just now? Before I hit you? Sorry about that by the way." She looked up at him, still shivering. He slowly sat next to her and offered his hand, which she took and held.

"It's... that's okay... I was... um... I was talking to you... We were... and... Noire, Vert, and Blanc were there... we were talking about swearing eternal friendship between the nations so we didn't have to compete for shares anymore... and you and I were..." her face turned red. "Um... never mind that bit... I don't think it's appropriate." He looked at her, giving the comedic, 'are you kidding me?' face. "Well... we were... a couple... I guess, that wasn't... wasn't true for you, was it?" she asked him. He sighed, and turned to her, gazing into her eyes. She gazed back, her cheeks flushing red. Eventually, Jayden could help it anymore, He threw his arms around her and pressed his lips against hers, Neptune wasting no time in pressing back, both of them all too eager to hold each other. When they separated he smiled at her, painfully happy to have her back.

"Does that answer your question?" he asked her, to which she nodded vigorously in response. They sat there together, holding each other, as if they would do so until the end of time. With things how they were at the moment, they might very well have done so. Eventually Neptune turned to him.

"So... how did this happen?" she asked him. He shook his head and shrugged.

"I'm not sure. It might have something to do with my new powers. Apparently I can mess around with how time flows, so that might have something to do with it." It wasn't a great answer, but it was what he had. Neptune nuzzled up to him, contented with laying in his lap and feeling his presence. Suddenly she sat up and stared at him, very afraid.

"If I'm here in your timeline, does that mean the other me is in My timeline?!" she asked in a panic. Jayden's eyes widened. He hadn't thought of that. In truth, he thought he'd destroyed the Deity for good. He was anchoring her in this timeline right? No, he couldn't have killed her truly. But with how much damage he'd laid into her, there was no way she could pose much of a threat to anything for a while. He sat back, relaxing against the tree.

"I almost beat her entirely." he told her, "The me in your timeline combined with the strength of the other goddesses will be enough to finish her if that becomes necessary." She sighed in relief again and leaned against him. "There may not be much to do here, but at least we can have some peace in each other's company." The two leaned on each other again, and closed their eyes, allowing the pleasant breeze to pass by and soothe them. Eventually John spoke up.

' _Actually, there may be a way to fix this_ ,' Jayden indicated that he was all ears, ' _If I detonate all of my energy here and now, it'll give you enough energy to awaken the rest of your powers, one of which might be jumping timelines_.' Jayden inquired further, ' _Yes, that would kill me, but I would rather die trying here than wait here for the rest of eternity. And no, there's no changing my mind._ ' There was nothing Jayden could do to stop him as a burst of energy filled his body, revivifying him, Jayden getting to his feet and helping Neptune up. She asked if he had a plan.

"Yeah, I'm gonna try to change things." He couldn't clearly define what any of his new powers were. All he knew is that this one was going to change the timeline drastically. Neptune glared at him.

"Not without me you're not." she said. He knew there was no changing her mind.

* * *

I watched the two of them take each other's hands and energy slowly charge up around them. As I watched, I knew that this was not the ending that anyone wanted. I looked at the pen in my hand, the power to change what would happen next. As an author, the fate of numerous people depended on me, and what I decided to do. This was not the end. There was still work to be done. I still needed them both. This next decision was a painful one, but one I had to make. I touched the pen lightly to my temple, also employing the use of my airbrush ring, and changed what happened next. The space around everyone turned black as the two were thrown into the air, spinning rapidly. They were holding onto each other, desperately trying to hold on, but eventually, their grips weakened and parted. And just before everything faded, Jayden looked at me, locking eyes with me. Then, everything went entirely black. I silently apologized to him as I walked back to my studio.

"Good night, Jayden. And trust me, this pains me just as much as it pains you, but there's only so much control that each of us has." I turned back for only a moment to reflect on this decision before entering my room. "Because no one is more deserving of a rest than you are. And when you wake, I will guide you. We will do this together." The word kind of pained me to say. Even I didn't have full control over everything. This was how we'd get through this. The two of us. Working as a team. I repeated the word once more...

" _ **Together...**_ "

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, I know there are questions for this chapter, and believe me, I'd love to answer them, but I'm not going to! Why? Because I can! Also, this story will be taking a break, because, as of 29-2-2016, The Mysterious Mr. DxD has approved me to go ahead and revive the story NENENEP! And so, I'll focus on that story before I come back to this one. That story is going to be remarkably shorter than this one, but that's because of reasons that may become evident later(?). So look forward to NENENEP Re;born with the adventures of our new hero: Maximillian Penumbra! I hope you all have a lovely evening, and as always... I will see you...! in the next chapter... Buh-baaaiii!**


	18. WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG!

I was sitting in my room, typing away on my laptop, leaning against the headboard and writing out the next few things I was going to publish. A boy, med-length orange hair, red eyes, and a mask on his shoulder sat by my side, leaning on my shoulder, watching me write. This is what it looks like when I write my next chapter of my fanfictions. Typically I'll be accompanied by one of the characters as I continue. A boy and a girl, with blue and red hair, and red and blue eyes respectively popped their heads into the room, dressed in silver armour. Maxi and I looked up at them.

"Need something?" I asked. The boy shook his head while the girl nodded. These were Epimetheus and Anubis, two of my other characters. Anubis moved fully into the room and put her hand on her hip.

"Twas once upon a merry long time ago that you would'st publish any of our chapters, 24. Where hath said days gone? What hath our story gone?" I looked her dead in the eye, trying to process what she'd said in English, rather than the Shakespearean she'd given to me in. Both her and her brother spoke in this manor. I couldn't remember why I'd chosen to do so in the first place.

"Writing for other sections of the archive..." I said, noting the fire in her eyes, despite them being blue, "...is WAY too hard." I told her, "the people in other sections way outnumber the ones in this secction, and they're putting out stuff at much more rapid rates than we are. At least in this section, my things get read. In the Frie Emblem section, I have no chance, seriously, that document was up for an entire month, it had one comment and hardly any views on it. I got rid of it until I've got it finished, that way we can upload daily. It's coming back, don't worry." I said this with an air of confidence about me. She pointed at the boy by my side and raised an eyebrow in question, Epimetheus spoke for her.

"Who would'st this handsome fellow be?" he asked, "I took it upon myself to have myself be known upon the memory of every character we hath created. Who would'st not have been introduced to your Titan Drake?" I looked up at him, raising my own eyebrow.

"Congrats on the really impressive title, plus three to your combat strength." I said, referencing something that I was quite sure no one would understand. "That's a Munchkin reference my the way, and I don't mean the one you eat, I meant the one you play with cards and a die." I turned back to Epi, "Anyways, this is Maxi. He's from NENE- er..." I looked over at Maxi, his eyes a bit dull from my slip up, "He's from our new fiction: The Puppet Master." I checked the time from my wrist. "Well, it's nine forty three, I'm gonna go make breakfast. Keep yourselves entertained." I hopped up from my bed, bringing my laptop with me, and headed downstairs to the kitchen. Histoire was already at the table. "Good morning, Mother." I joked to her. She smiled and returned my morning greeting. After checking the fridge for ingredients, I eventually decided on making myself some eggs and pan frying some of the leftover prime rib meat. When I was done cooking, eating, and washing the dishes, It was 10:46. I looked over at my black and white dog. Maxi opened up the door and headed downstairs to grab the Easter designs and I quickly hurried after her. After safely recovering the dog, I put on a pair of boots. I had to take her for the longer of the two walks she'd have this morning. "Hey, Oreo, Come here." She joyously skipped over and I fitted a black collar onto the happy puppy.

It was another hour before I returned, then another hour until I'd taken a shower and gotten properly dressed. With a swig of some water and a proper yawn, I grabbed some chips, the salted kind, and a bottle of Doc. P, courtesy of our blue hair magic friend, I headed downstairs to write the next few outlines and chapters of The Puppet Master. It was going perfectly fine until my little salt mine burst into the room. In other words, Jayden was very upset about something. Both Maxi and I looked over at him, practically seething, and simply stared. It was a decent half an hour before he spoke.

"24, I'm BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORED!" I looked at Maxi, then back at him.

"Yeah, what of it?" I asked. This was clearly not the answer he was looking for.

"I wanna get back into action! You gotta upload the next chapter of Paradox so I can get back to it!"

"Jay. Boi. You're not even IN the next four or so chapters."

"What the fuck?! Whai not?"

"Boi."

"Boi!"

"Do you not remember what happened JUST last chapter?"

"No?! What does that have to do with anything?!"

"It has to do with EVERYTHING! It's the whole fucking story itself!"

"Why am I not in the chapters?!"

"Because you're being fucking reformatted in the story at the moment!"

"What the fuck is that?!"

"Find out when the next few chapters come out!"

"I can't fucking wait that long!"

"Well, SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRY!"

"Write faster!"

"I'm working on other shit!"

"Like WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"

"Like schoolwork! And The Puppet Master!"

"Alternate between the two stories! You did that for your other fire emblem fic?"

"I deleted that story! No one liked it anyway!"

"I liked that story! Are you calling me no one?!"

"NO! That's not the POINT! I'm finishing the damn thing before I start uploading it!"

"Where are we going with this conversation?"

"I'm not even sure anymore." We stared at each other before Maxi intervened.

"You're almost done with Puppet Master's fourth chapter. Why not finish that one first, then get a chapter or two in on Paradox?" he offered. With a silent thought, I made a note to thank Maxi later.

"Then, that's what we'll do. I'll get on finishing this. Just be patient until I've gotten this done?" Jayden nodded and left the room. I turned back to my computer.

* * *

 **Made in response to a certain friend of mine.**


	19. The Welcome Back and Waggish Bar Scene

**A/n: Well this is something I didn't expect to see for a while. Here we have an ACTUAL chapter of this story, not a joke about my upload schedule, and not a response to a friend. Huh. This should be fun. You may note that there isn't anything bolded or underlined during the story. I noted that people seemed to like it better and it was easier for immersion when I left that out, so let's just see about that. Since this has taken much too long already, I'll keep the trivia, which there isn't much, to the end-slate. Without further ado here's:**

 _ **HDN-Paradox: Chapter Nineteen; The Welcome Back and The Waggish Bar Scene**_

* * *

Jayden opened his eyes and sat up, looking around. He recognized the area, it was somewhere north of the main city of Planeptune. Other than that, it was his favorite napping spot, but there would be time for that later. He pulsed the area, unable to detect anyone but himself. For him, that meant Neptune wasn't around. The thought saddened him, but it was no use looking for her. If he couldn't sense her, then she simply wasn't there. Whatever just happened had probably shifted him to a different dimension. He dusted himself off and took inventory of himself. He had Zhen, but his voices were silent. He hoped they weren't permanently gone, but he couldn't be sure. He still had Memoire Jumun, still on his back where he'd kept it. He still had his broken Halo, his wings inactive, but at the ready. He gave them a stretch. As for anything else, his first thought was to get back to civilization and get himself fixed up. He was still heavily damaged from his previous encounter. He thought back to the last thing he saw, balling his fist at the thought of the author doing that to him, slowly brooding over what he would do when he next met the author. Luckily for him, that would be quite soon. Matter of fact, now seems like a good time.

* * *

"Hey, Jayden." The boy jumped at the sound of my voice, rage filling his eyes, his blade quickly drawn. I raised both hands in a surrender type of gesture. "You gonna hear me out, or are we gonna stab first and ask questions later?"

"I prefer the latter." he said coldly. He tried to slow time on me, but since I knew what was going to happen, it didn't work so well. I caught Zhen's blade between my palms, managing not to cut myself. "Do me a favor and just die."

"Not happening, I've better things to do." He brought his blade up, trying to go for a cleaving strike, but I whirled around, kicking the blade from his hand, the blade lodging in the ground a few feet away. He looked at me. "So do you." He unleashed a hail of magic missiles which I brought to a halt by drawing a line in front of myself, the ink taking physical form and blocking the missiles. "Listen to me damn it!"

"Give me a reason!" He went to grab Zhen from the ground, but I whipped out an ink cable from my ring and grabbed it first. Much to his surprise, Zhen worked in my hand better than it did his. I brought the blade up towards the sky.

"First off..." The blade blinked with energy, glowing with a blue light. I whipped the blade in front of me and the energy dispersed into five discs, each one homing in on him and connecting with crazy amounts of force. "I'm quite the bit stronger than you are. Second..." I healed him with a burst of energy and a healstroke. "I'm trying to help you."

"Is that why you took Neptune from me?" he asked. The question stung. I hadn't intended for that to happen. "And is that why you changed my story when I finally had peace?"

"Jayden, if that purgatory of waiting is what you call peace, then I'm gonna need a new protagonist here." He threw a rock at me which I made no effort to dodge or block because he missed anyway. I sighed. "Look, listen to me if you want to, but here's the truth. There's a reason for all the shit that happening right now, and neither of us has full control of it. But, I can help you out here and there, and to prove it..." I made a few edits to my lines of codes and my notebooks, and Jayden found himself feeling a bit more resilient. "That should be quite helpful in the upcoming tasks you'll need to complete. I gave you a main passive skill, like how all the characters from Fire Emblem Fates have unique skills? Yours is Natural Regeneration. So now it's still quite weak, but it'll get stronger as you keep using it and upgrade your skills. As of right now you should periodically, or gradually, whichever you choose, recover 6% of your Health, 6% of your Guard, 8% of your Stamina, and 10% of your Magic. Hope it serves you well. Oh, and by the way, welcome home." And with that, I decided to take my leave.

* * *

Granted, I'd left him with more questions than answers, but at least I'd have helped him live long enough to find the answers himself. Nonetheless, on with the story. Jayden's brow furrowed, what had the author meant by 'welcome home?' He intended to find out at least by the end of the day. Spreading his wings, Jayden took to the skies and soared off towards the Planeptunian City, easily breaking the sound barrier with his sextuplet wings. Landing in the center of the town square, he made sure to deactivate his wings so as to avoid suspicions. Granted, he was walking around with Histoire's tome on his back, but he would have to concern himself with that later. He walked over to the Basilicom, which was in perfect shape, not broken glass, just perfect form. It was then that he noted that there were people walking around, and not in a state of panic either, just going about their daily business. He took a moment to consider that this meant he was in a different timeline, or much, MUCH further back in the same one. He decided to rule out the latter as an option. He pushed open the door and walked over to the main counter where no one was. This was slightly concerning as he was quite certain that Histoire wouldn't leave the desk except for seriously worrying reasons. Seeing as there was no one around, he had some time, and he was covered in dirt and his own blood, he decided to go take a shower and wash himself off.

Feeling like a new man, and much better after making himself clean, Jayden headed back into the main room and sat himself down at one of the various tables and began to tinker with a few of the various machinery parts that Nepgear would leave laying around. It almost seemed like a normal day to him. After a while, he took a moment to look at this thing in his hands. He'd somehow made a mini model helicopter out of the various scraps of metal. He put it in his pocket for later and grabbed a book to read, figuring that he'd be here for a while.

And a while it was. Evening fell and Jayden had no more info to go on than before. He knew that Histoire wasn't the type to simply leave her station, so something must have been wrong. He needed info, and quickly if he wanted to fix the situation before it got worse, so he grabbed his gear and set out to one of Planeptune's less honorable cities, Rubacava. Jayden stepped outside and spread his wings. Judging the distance, Rubacava was about a day's distance of a flight from here. He took to the skies and set off. There was work to be done.

Jayden landed in front of Rubacava's main casino. This was the best place to acquire information, but at the same time, he noted that today was the Day of Pudding. Something of a national holiday that Neptune had created as a national holiday a while ago. What that meant for him was that everyone was celebrating with their families. Everyone except the ones he needed, after all, they were the ones that gathered the most information, they were the ones that never went home, after all, the ones that don't have anything to go home to don't have anything to lose. It was a dark thought, but it brought him convenience, so darkness would have to bugger off so he could get done what he wanted. Jayden deactivated his wings and pushed open the doors, stepping inside. The casino was much more crowded than he would have thought, tons of people gambling, drinking, betting pudding cups... that was probably a side effect of the holiday. Jayden checked his identification card, looking at his picture.

"Hoo boy, how young was I when Saturn took this picture for me? Geez, that was maybe went I was twenty-five. Ah, memories. True Goddess, I look young. Hm... oh wait, I look no different." he put the card away and walked over to the counter and had a seat. The young woman behind the counter looked at him. "Hey there, Viola." he said to her. She put a finger to her lips.

"It's Cesario, you fool! If they find out I'm a woman, they'll kick me out of this job for sure." Jayden made sure to remember that. "Now then, friend, what can I do for you?" Cesario asked him. Jayden tapped the counter lightly and had a look around then looked back at her... him? Cesario. Fuck this whole thing was confusing to him.

"I'm mostly looking for information, though a drink would do as well." Cesario looked at him.

"Compadre, Jayden... You're immune to poison. I could give you a jug of straight absinthe and you wouldn't even get tipsy." Jayden took a moment to contemplate this. "Plus, if you're looking for information, you've got better things to be doing than sitting and drinking." Jayden shook his head.

"And that is where you're wrong, Senora-" she hissed at him, "er, muchacho? Meh, that'll do. That is where you are wrong, muchacho. Sitting and drinking lets the info come to me as people pass by. Besides, when did I say I wanted alcohol? Just grab a Vanilla Cherry Smooth Strike Cola for me, would you?" Cesario leaned over the counter.

"Jayden, what are you going to do with all that energy? Don't you have enough?" Jayden simply shrugged.

"I don't know, I just got done fighting a world destroying ancient fiend. I think I could use it." Cesario gave him a look.

"Don't joke with me like that. When it's coming out of your mouth, I can hardly believe you're joking." Cesario said, grabbing a can from under the counter, "You know what? Even if you aren't joking, I don't want to know. Just take the drink." the can hit the counter and Jayden took it and put a silver credit on the table.

"Much appreciated." Cesario nodded.

"Most people can't afford that kind of stuff, Jay. Be lucky that you can." Jayden looked at the can in his hand, then back at Cesario."

"Was that a fucking pun?" Cesario chuckled a bit.

"Not to worry, compadre. Maybe it was, if it was, then don't concern yourself with it. Pretend it wasn't." Jayden narrowed his eyes and made an 'I'm watching you gesture to Cesario before heading over to one of the other counters. He sat down at one which served food. Two girls with animalistic ears and tails turned to face him.

"Ahh, Moru and CC2. Been a while, hm?" both girls nodded.

"Can I interest you in a meal, Mr. Jay?" Moru asked him. He waved his hand after thinking about it for a moment.

"Maybe in a bit. I just got here, my appetite hasn't quite kicked in just yet." he looked at the other people around the bar, spotting Lid just over down towards the other end of the counter having some food. Jayden found it strange that Lid wasn't hiding in her box while doing so. "Hold on, Lid's being social? The hell's that about?" CyberConnect2 shrugged.

"Lot changed while you been gone," she said, "to be fair, I don't remember you being so social either." Jayden shrugged back.

"Bah, come one, CC, you know that I change easily. After all, I taught you your shit about brewing." she laughed at his comment.

"Ah, what was it you said? You steal from the rich to give to me to pour. Hah, the good days, Jayden. The good days. I miss them." Jayden sighed and shook his head.

"Come on, show me what you remember. Fix me something good to drink?" CC nodded.

"Sure, but you can bet I'm gonna make something special for you. Do me a favor and keep yourself busy 'til I'm done. You're probably looking for information, right? Well how'sabout this? Lid's over there, Lady Wak's over in the other room, and Wyn's gonna be here soon enough. If you need information, those are the three with it, yeah?" Jayden nodded.

"Thanks CC. I'll be back for that drink." Jayden stood. "Now who should I go to first?" Jayden figured that either girl would probably want something in return for information, especially since Lady Wak never really seemed to like him. Hell, she never really seemed to like anyone. Nonetheless, that might complicate things, but he had work to do and intended to get it done. Lid seemed easier to deal with, so he headed over to the other counter. Lee-fi was behind the counter, counting chips and credits alike while serving pudding cups to various customers. Jayden ordered something random. He wasn't sure which one he wanted more, so he simply told Lee-fi to surprise him. She brought him a pineapple cherry mix. How tropical. He sat next to Lid. "So here's how this is going to go. You have info I want, I've probably got something you want. Let's talk." Lid turned to him.

"I hate it when you tell me how I'm going to work. Don't try and tell me what to do, little man." she said, an angry glare in her eyes. Jayden simply flipped his hair over his shoulder and turned to her.

"Alright, then, now that I've got your attention, how've you been, love?" her face turned red and he knew he had her.

"I... er... I've been. . . fine?" he smiled at her flustered nature, and she caught on after a moment or two. "Damn you, Jay..." she muttered.

"Oh come on, Lid. You know I love ya. Besides, I've been gone so long, we have to make up for lost time, right?" her face reddened further. He took her hands in his. "Come on, talk to me. Won't you?" A wavy smile appeared on her face.

"Y-yeah... you're right... I guess... what did you want to know?" she asked. He chuckled to himself slightly. Now that she was completely red in the face, he could get whatever he wanted out of her.

"So what's been going on since I left? You know, how's everyone doing?" she shrugged.

"I guess it's all been pretty low scale without you. Not much exciting, at least not that I've concerned myself with." he put a hand over his mouth in thought, placing his finger across his lips and his thumb under his chin. He inquired about things that she hadn't been concerned with. "I think the candidates are off doing something. Maybe you should check in on them?" Jayden decided to remember that. "Something about the older CPU's and the Deity of Sin. Nasty crap. I don't want any of it." Jayden nodded.

"Agreed, but my position mandates otherwise." Lid nodded in agreement as well.

"Hey, if you're going, you could probably use a hand, right? You've got my cell number right? Oh hey, wait. It changed. Take my new one and call me if you need help, yeah?" Jayden accepted the number and jotted it into his phone.

"Thanks, Lid. I'll make sure to do that. See ya around, I guess." He pecked her cheek lightly and walked off, leaving Lid even redder than before. He returned to the counter where CC2 and Moru were. "So, anything?" Moru frowned.

"Mr. Jay, It's been four minutes!" she huffed at him. He huffed back, blowing his hair out of his face, the lazy strands simply falling back into place.

"Right, right. Hey, CC, is my drink ready yet?" CyberConnect2 rushed back over holding a cup with some rainbow coloured fluids in it, complete with a straw and a lid so he could stash it in his inventory and drink it whenever. "Thanks, Cyber. What is this, anyway?" she proudly smiled.

"It's something of my own invention, and now it's one of the favorites at the casino. Normally it'd be pretty expensive, but it's you, so just remember me later, got it?" Jayden shook his head.

"Fuck favors, I'll remember you now." he dropped a golden credit on the counter and cleaved it in half with his hand, a smile pile of silver credits splitting up in front of either girl at the counter. Moru and CC's eyes bulged at the money.

"True Goddess, Mr. Jay... I know she said it was expensive, but that's... that's a bit much...?" Jayden shook his head again.

"No it's not, I probably owe you for something or other. If not, just roll with it. We've all got our bills to pay, I've got enough to pay mine, so lemme help you with yours." he said nonchalantly. CC looked at him enviously.

"I gotta start working wherever the hell you work... where do you get all this, Jay?" In truth, it was a combination of his paycheck as a royal guard and his rewards from completing so many guild quests in the other timeline.

"Guild quests," he said with a half-truth, "shit's magical. You'd make quite the decent bit of coinage on all that." Cyber looked at Moru, then at him.

"Mr. Jay... the guilds have been closed for years now..." Jayden recoiled slightly at this statement. He tried to think about the time gap between when he'd left and now. Well... something like thirty seven years in the other dimension at first, then add on 264 more... that was... shit... 264 plus 37, that was 301, times 365 for the amount of days in a year...

that was 109865 days... He remembered Histoire talking about another dimension with a time ratio of one day here, five days there. That made 21973 days here... he'd been gone for something like 60 years, maybe a little more or less since he wasn't counting leap years and junk. Shoot...

"True..." he said, keeping up an appearance, "but that's how magical they are. All that time ago, and I still have cash to spare. Trust me, I have enough to help out my friends. I know you two would do the same for me, right?" both girls nodded with a smile.

"thanks, Mr. Jay! You're the best!" Cyber nodded in agreement.

"Oh hey, by the way, Wyn and Vio just came in. We weren't expecting Vio... but she'd probably be a good person to go to for info as well, right?" Jayden nodded.

"Yeah, lemme try Lady Wak first though, I want to get THAT out of the way." Cyber nodded.

"Good luck. The Spectrum Shake I gave you is quite alcoholic, though for you, that'll just add to the taste. If you can get her to drink it though..." Jayden nodded, liking the name of the drink. Maybe it would come in handy. He walked over to the Lady's table.

"Been a while, Jayden. What do you need from me?" Jayden shrugged.

"What, Wak? I can't say hello to an old friend?" she frowned.

"You and I are not old friends. Nice try though. Now what do you want? We may have years, or maybe hours, but we'll all be pushing up flowers sooner or later, so don;t waste my time."

"Shit, well you just get right to the point don't you? Went home the other day and no one was home. Know where they might be?" she giggled.

"No, but I know someone who does. Make it worth my while, you know what I like." Jayden took a moment to think about it.

"Yeah, I got it. Gimme a moment." he stood up and walked back over to Moru. "Hey, that meal you offered me earlier? I'll take it now. Here's a silver credit, whatever you've got'll do." Moru fixed up some food and brought it back to him. "Much appreciated." He brought the food back to Wak. "Here's your food, Lady Wak." he said. He set it before her and waited for her to finish devouring it. She smiled up at him, as if waiting. "Here's dessert if it helps jog your memory." he put the pudding on the table. She stashed it for later.

"You're in luck. Vio just came in. She's been talking to IF. She'll know what's going on." he nodded.

"Fuck, I would've found that out anyway. Whatever, it satisfies people, so I'll go with it." he looked around. "Well since Wyn's here, I might as well talk to her anyway. He sat at Wyn's table. She was sweating profusely. "True Goddess! What hordes have you just evacuated from? he asked. she looked at him.

"Sorry, Jayden. Just got out of a game. You should've seen it! I did really good!" he smiled at the younger girl.

"I believe it. You're the best player I know. Not to mention, you're quite the general on top of that. Hey, there's something that I want to know, that I think you might know, mind if I ask?" she shook her head.

"Not at all, Jayden! What's up?" she managed between ragged breaths. Jayden took a moment to think before pulling out the Vanilla Cherry Smooth Strike Cola can and handing it to her.

"I think you need this more than I do." she raised a finger before he cut her off. "Lemme get that for you." he popped the top of the can, allowing her to drink it uninhibited. She took the can and had a long drink before she put the can down on the table and smiled at him.

"Thanks a bunch, Jayden! Here, share it with me?" she pushed the can over to him and he took a sip, relishing the vanilla and cherry flavors blending together. He gave a contented sigh after finishing the sip and handed it back over.

"Ah, my favorite flavor and brand of soft drink. Nothing quite beats it's refreshing and crisp taste." he said. Wyn made a bit of a funny face at his comment. "We're making fun of a point and click puzzle game, therefore I have to comment on things." she nodded.

"So then, what did you want to know?" Jayden took a moment to think about what he was going to ask.

"I don't suppose you know where Histoire is? She wasn't at home in the Basilicom when I went there yesterday." her eyes lit up as she recalled the info.

"Oh oh! Some guy has her! She's locked up in LAN castle, and this guy wants the CPU candidates to go there to rescue her, but no one else! I tried to get in, but I couldn't find the entrance..." Jayden balled his fist and slammed it on the table.

"Right... then after I talk to Vio, I'm outta here. If Mother needs help, I'll be the one to provide it. The CPU candidates'll definitely take too long with that. I bet they're probably off doing side-quests as we speak." Wyn took his arm suddenly.

"Let me help you! You've always been nice to me, so let me help you out too, okay?" Jayden agreed. Having an extra helper couldn't hurt. With himself, Wyn, and Lid, this could even wind up being easy. "Then it's agreed! Here's my phone number just in case." Jayden registered Wyn's phone into his own.

"Alright then, just let me talk to Vio real quick and we're outta here." he walked over to Vio's table. "Talk to me." She smirked at him.

"How forward, you really should buy a lady a drink first, you know that?" he pulled out the Spectrum Shake and set it on the table. "Oooh... you really know how to treat a girl right, Jay." he shrugged.

"I have a way of getting what I want. Now then. Do you have what I want?" he asked.

"Yeah, the Candidates and CPUs? If you ask me, they're on the road to a bad end. I was going to join their party, but I just couldn't bear to watch how poorly they get along. Plus, I hate unhappy endings. Here's my phone number, just promise me you'll fix this?" Jayden nodded.

"I plan to." he said with determination. He headed back over to Wyn. "Alright, I'm ready to go. I'll meet you out front." She nodded and headed off to get ready. He walked over to Lid. "I hope you don't mind that I call on you early. If not, let's rock." She nodded and headed off to grab her guns and knives. He headed out front, gazing into the sky. "Shoot, it got windy. Guess this might take a little longer... hm... I don't have that kind of time." he looked up at the sky, imagining someone clicking into the clouds, or on his wings icon for him to fly. "I didn't even get my wings three days ago. I can hardly fly straight in optimal weather. What makes you think I can fly in this?" he told the theoretical player. "Guess I'm gonna have to get over that though. Maybe I can use a spell or something to give myself some extra stability." he searched Histoire's tome for the right spell. "This'll do." He spread his wings, and a alight white light blinked into them, and suddenly, his wings felt much more natural. He deactivated them again, knowing that he could use them much easier later when he needed them.

"Hey, Jayden." He turned around to see Wyn and Lid by the door. "We're ready. I know where the castle is. Let's do this." Wyn told him. He nodded and got down on one knee, placing his hands firmly on the ground, all six of his wings shooting out and spreading, making it a much more flashy reveal than was technically necessary. Both girls slightly gasped at his wings and the blazing purple halo around his shoulder. He stood, his wings giving a small flap and displaying their splendor. Cesario/Viola barged out into the evening, a handgun strapped to her left leg and a rapier fitted into a sheath at her right.

"Don't think you're leaving without me." she hissed. He smiled.

"Wouldn't even think about it. Let's do this right." he said, a smirk adorning his face. Viola tightly held onto his back and Lid and Wyn took either of his arms. With that, he took to the sky. Determination filled his face, anger and power pulsing through him all at once as he soared off towards the castle.

"Just you wait." he said. "I don't put any stock in this destiny crap. I'll show them We're gonna change the future."

* * *

 **Let's get this trivia out of the way, we're all tired and want to go to bed.  
**

 **First off, let's do some background info:  
WHAT'S IN A NAME? - Cesario/Olivia  
So this character is another hidden reference to plays of old in my writing. Yes, this is an OC of mine, but the whole character is basically a maker character of Shakespearean plays and theater work. Cesario/Olivia specifically comes from the story Twelfth Night. That's where this character comes from, sporting Victorian dress and a Rapier. The handgun is a bit of a joke to a friend of mine, she'll get it when she sees it.**

 **Um... Is that it? I think so. I'm probably forgetting something, but that'll come in a later chapter that probably won't take most of several months to come out.**

 **So then, with that all out of the way, I hope you all have a lovely evening, and, be it here or anywhere elsewhere, may we meet again upon another chapter. See ya!**


	20. One Among Many

**So this is normally where I'd put the author's note, but I haven't got anything to say. You've heard me give excuses for procrastination enough already, hit the chapter! This is:**

 **The Paradox Chapter Twenty: _The One Among Many_**

* * *

Jayden had lost all hope at this point. He stood idle in midair, his wings flapping every now and again to keep him aloft. Wyn clung to his back and looked out over the landscape of the land they'd tried to save countless times now. Sometime along the line, they'd lost Lid and Cesario. Lid had eventually broken down from the repetition, and Viola had almost gone insane from how many times they'd tried and failed. Jayden had eventually decided to leave her behind and reset the timeline so she wouldn't remember it. She'd actually disappeared at some point, but Jayden didn't seem to care anymore. Wyn, trusting Jayden almost implicitly, had stayed with him, remaining confident, and helping him along the way.

With that said, there remained a question: How many times had they tried to save this timeline and failed? How many times had Jayden had to rewind time and try again, erasing everything in the process? One of the things that pained Jayden most, to the point where he'd spent entire timelines searching, was the fact that he couldn't find Neptune. Well, more specifically, he couldn't find HIS Neptune. The one he'd shared so many evenings with. The one he'd gone on so many adventures and quests with. The one he was in love with. The only thing keeping Jayden from going insane was Wyn. She was quite a bit like a younger sister to him, and for her, he remained strong. Just having her nearby was enough to give him the drive to continue.

Even if he had the strength to continue, he was still weak. Zhen's light had gone dark. His shields were battered and dented. His right shield had even broken. Now he only had his left shield, which didn't fly properly anymore, its most useful boon, its range, having been taken as well. Jayden's memory of spells was hazy. He didn't have Histoire's tome anymore. On one run or another, he'd given it back. His wings were burned and darkened. Just keeping aloft was fine, but any sort of movement other than a glide seemed to be extremely taxing on him. Wyn was worried about him. After all of these incarnations of this timeline, he was the only thing she really believed in anymore. He clenched his fists and landed on a cliff side. Wyn hopped off his back and leaned against his side. Jayden put his hand on her head and comfortingly rubbed her hair.

"One of these times, Wyn." he told her. "We'll get it eventually." his voice was hoarse, and carried with it the lamentations of so many that were lost. Wyn looked up at him, giving him a smile, making him feel better.

"I know we will." she said. She sounded tired. Jayden looked down at her, leaning on him, slowing sinking to her knees, and eventually sitting next to him. How long had it been since either of them slept or rested? He scooped her up and carried her down, setting her on a bed fashioned from a few tree branches. This was a base that they'd set up a few runs ago. It wasn't much, but to them, it was home. It wasn't long before Jayden walked over to Wyn again. He couldn't keep doing this to her. He picked her up again and flew her to Lastation, setting her on a bench in a park by her own house. Leaving her alone wasn't much better, but at least she'd be able to make her own choices. He kneeled and gently kissed her forehead, then brushed her hair back with his hand. "I'll fix this, Wyn." He told her, " _I promise._ "

With that in mind, Jayden closed his eyes, and turned back time.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, it was the dawn of the day that the candidates would go and rescue Histoire from LAN castle again. Before he could move, he fell to his knees, hacking and coughing violently. Jayden choked up blood, splashing the ground, painting it red. Staggering to his feet, Jayden dusted himself off and held himself steady against a tree. "That one hurt..." he muttered to himself. The worse the future would have been for the timeline, the worse it got when he reset it. That had been one of the worst resets yet. Unfortunately, his powers of time had been slightly broken by his travel from one timeline to another. The only power he could use now, and with very heavy recoil, was the reset. Luckily, the regen ability that he'd gained earlier kicked in, letting him recover faster. With some effort, he managed to steady himself and prepare for the next step. Now he had to go initiate all the crap to cycle again. First was the LAN castle incident.

He spread his wings and took off, landing in through the window at the top of the castle. Trick barely had time to turn around before Jayden's fist met his face. Linda, or the underling as others referred to her, tried to make a move, but one swipe from Zhen, even in its heavy, powerless form, was enough to back her up. Trick righted himself, and Jayden quickly smashed the cage on Histoire.

"Jayden?!" she exclaimed.

"There will be time for explanations later!" he told her. He launched a volley of fireballs at Trick, but that wouldn't hold a CFW at bay for long.

"Valiant Charge!" Jayden charged down Trick, catching Linda in the process, smashing them both out through the wall, throwing them away. Jayden hurried back over to Histoire, "That should provide us enough time. Now then-"

"Hold it right there!" Jayden turned to see the CPU candidates at the far end of the room. Before they could advance, Jayden took over.

"You know, I would tell you that this is a misunderstanding, but I've done that before and you never believe me, so let's not waste our own time." he said before either of them advanced. "Here's how this is going to go. You're going to get fed up when I try to offer you an explanation. You're going to then attack me, which I beat down all four of you, and your back up, every single time. From that point, you either listen to me, or ignore me. When you ignore me, then you try and attack me again, this never works well for you. When you listen to me, we waste way too much time explaining before almost nothing different happens anyway, because you still don't believe me, so I'm going to skip all that." and with that, Jayden back-flipped over Histoire, out the window behind him. That was about as well as that could go. Escaping that scene was about all he could do. No one was willing to listen to someone who'd been gone for over sixty years and they didn't know very much about.

With that scenario out of the way, Jayden wasn't sure what to do next. He had to do something different than his previous runs if he wanted to make any sort of change to the future. Previously he'd tried a trio of different ideas. The first being to try and talk to one of the CPU's or candidates, that one always ended poorly. The second thing he'd tried was to attempt assisting them from the shadows, and while that worked, it usually lead to him getting jumped by them at one point or another. The third thing he tried to do was take down the CFWs himself. He was strong, but he wasn't that strong, and he was severely crippled in terms of strength. Even if he had both shields polished and in top condition, he might have stood a chance, but not like he was now. As he was now, he was basically screwed against any of them. Jayden had one more idea, but it was risky, and it would have to wait until dark.

Jayden needed to ask his mother for help.

He needed to keep himself busy in the meantime; otherwise he was going to have a rather hard time later when he needed other things. Things that would help him complete other objectives and side events that might have a more profound effect on the outcome. For the time being, the main concern was setting up the future. That was the one thing that never changed, was the setup, that is, until now. Now he needed a purple marker.

* * *

When darkness finally fell, Jayden found himself creeping through bushes just outside the Basilicom. He could try to go right through the front, but it was likely that there was someone on guard after what had just happened. He could try to bust through a window, but that would attract more attention than he wanted. Suddenly, Jayden remembered. It was an old tactic that he would use to get into the Basilicom late at night without disturbing anyone. That is, anyone except Histoire, but that wouldn't matter. What would matter was whether or not Histoire would remember what to do. Jayden quickly wrote out a note and scaled the side of the Basilicom, up to where Histoire's window was, and slipped the paper into the widow, then tapped the window lightly and waited.

Histoire was getting changed for bed as she pondered what had happened earlier today. Maybe she had imagined him? Maybe it was just her mind filling that void with his image as she tried to cope with losing him, possibly twice now. All she wanted to see him again. To hold him on more time. To tell him how much she loved him. She wasn't sure if that was possible anymore. These were the thoughts going through her mind as she changed, her head quickly clearing when she heard the window get tapped.

That window wasn't see-through, so whoever it was couldn't see her changing, however, there was enough of a slit for a note to be slid through it, and she found such a note at the windowsill. Wait a second, how the hell had that person put this through the window in the first place? They would have had to climb up all the way from the ground floor, up a floor or two on the outside, which wasn't easy with the Basilicom's smooth, non-magnetic, metal walls. This song and dance began to feel familiar, and she went over and looked at the note after she finished changing. Upon opening the note, she realized that it was not a note at all, rather it was a small violet star, drawn onto the paper in marker. Histoire tried to recall to mind what this meant. She knew it had something to do with her old harp and her balcony, so she went over to the balcony door, harp in hand, but now came the problem of 'What do I do now?' She tried to remember what she did with the harp at this point. With a few rushed thoughts zipping back and forth through her head, she eventually remembered what this was and put the harp down and simply flung open the door. She looked out, peaking to the left and the right. When she didn't see anything, she floated over to the edge of the balcony and harshly whispered: "Hello? Are you there?" In a flurry of light feathers, someone landed on the balcony behind her. In a panic, she whipped around, holding out her hand, a flame blazing to life in her palm as she tried to ward off whoever that may have been. However, in the light of the flames, she noted a gentle glow from the figure, and was able to note its facial features. Somehow, after sixty years, her son had returned to her. Her hands cupped over her mouth and she almost choked on tears. He smiled, finally getting the chance to see her without any background antics. He looked just like she remembered him, just slightly taller. She rushed over and threw her arms around him, tears streaming down her face. He quickly embraced her as well, almost falling over from how suddenly she had hug-tackled him. He held her tightly, though Histoire was so completely into hugging him that she was almost crushing him out of love. After they separated, Jayden got right to the point. Even if he could reset the timeline, that meant he'd have to start over again. He wanted to get this done. This could be the one. This could be the end. He had to try. He gave Histoire the short version of what was happening and how he'd technical been trying to save the same three years of time for hundreds of years. Histoire had to consider this, and after that, she asked him how he'd changed, and what abilities he had now. After a moment or two, she realized that it was almost twelve and that she was tired, and she knew he was too. With that, she told him to go to bed, and did so herself, plotting how they would go about tomorrow.

Jayden, on the other hand, was a bit too anxious to sleep straight away. He would get there, but right now, he wanted to brush a few things up. He took a shower, cleaned up his hair, brushed it over his shoulder again, brushed his teeth, shaved (even though it was completely unnecessary), and dyed his hair blue. It looked strange, but it would keep people from recognizing him straight away. His hair would gradually return to black, he'd tried to dye it before, but it would last long enough to keep him covered. After that, he got to his equipment. Zhen usually sharpened himself, but in his powered down form, Jayden just had to deal with it. No whet stone, no matter how formidable, could possible change the blade enough to sharpen it. However, Jayden WAS able to polish and sharpen his shield, as well as refine its surface and knock out the dents to where it looked just like new. He still had the materials from his old, broken, right shield, so he used them to reforge a newer, stronger shield with more powers than the last. This new shield, being an element super-conductor, could be charged with magic to defend against that sort of attack more. Granted, it would also do a bit more damage when he attacked with it, but that wasn't his main concern. He left Zhen against the wall of his room. In its heavy state, it wouldn't be much use to him, so he left it there, against the wall, dormant and cold. He checked the time, reading one thirty two. For as much sleep he needed, compared to as much sleep as he got, he could afford to go a few days without sleeping, yet he preferred to do so as much as possible, just to make sure he had enough energy to keep going for long trips. In complete silence, he sat up and climbed up, sitting on the head board of the bed. It was a small plank of inclined wood, placed so that you might rest a book or a flashlight there, in place on an end-table, yet Jayden placed himself onto it, gazing out into the night through the exposed window, light from both the street lights and starlit night sky, splashing in the details of the room with a low amount of illumination. Jayden took a moment to consider who he was going to be. He was expected to be the hero of Gamindustri now. That was quite a step up from the Hero of Hi-jinks.

With everything he was expected to be, he controlled the fate of Gamindustri here, so if he wasn't something special, then he would just be dooming it again, and he was fairly certain he was indeed doing just that. Some hero he was. A small gust of cool evening air blew through the room. Jayden gave a small shiver. Normally the cold wasn't so bad, but he was in his pajamas. They weren't as insulating as his normal clothing. He gave a huff, which came out much louder than he had intended, yet Jayden wasn't sure he cared, he was pouting and was fairly certain it wouldn't bother anyone, since no one was awake.

Suddenly, Jayden heard Histoire come in. He wasn't at all surprised, she was a very light sleeper. "Jayden?" she called out. He flicked on the lights with a small bit of magic. Histoire crossed her arms. "I knew you weren't asleep."

"Sorry," Jayden responded, it was obvious that was why she had woken up. He turned towards the Oracle, her hair kind of frizzed all over the place.

"Not at all..." she said quietly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, "Aren't you tired Jayden? It's late and stuff... Is something bothering you?"

Jayden locked up. She had called him out. "Don't worry about it," he replied, trying to act gave him a disapproving pouty huff.

"True Goddess, Jayden. Now I can't do anything BUT worry about you until you tell me," she said, "So please, if something's bothering you, talk to me about it, sweetie."

"Oh come on, Mom." He said, his argument falling flat on its back. Her stare persisted. "Just go back to sleep. You're gonna need it." He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, silently hoping that Histoire would listen to his suggestion and return to the world of dreams. Unfortunately, she threw away said hopes. Jayden was ready for 20 questions but instead was greeted with a warmth sliding up next to him. He didn't have to open his eyes to know what it was. "Well," he said, "since you won't go to sleep. Ask away." He said, slightly annoyed. He really didn't want to talk about it. He braced himself for the painful questions, but instead was given with a hug to occupy the space. He looked over at Histoire. "Alright, well that works too..."

For a while, they just sat there, her arms around him. Eventually, she asked the question on her mind, "So, what are you worried about?" She was trying to figure out was on his mind, finding it seemingly impossible to read him, short of that something was most definitely bothering him. Normally she was better at this.

Jayden sat there, battling the thoughts rushing through his head. "It's... everything really," he said tiredly, "I don't know if I can do this."

"I'm not sure I understand..." Histoire said. This was something she wasn't used to. Usually she had some way of being relate-able to her friends when they had issues, but now she really couldn't. He sighed quietly such that only the two of them would hear it.

"I don't think I live up being this hero." He said, closing his eyes again, fighting off a headache. "You're an oracle, Uni's a goddess, hell, even Nepgear, Ram, and Rom are goddesses. IF's the Wind Walker of Gamindustri, Compa's a nurse, hell, Red's got a damn dragon..." He paused, "I'm just me. I feel inadequate to this position I'm supposed to live up to."

"Ah, now I get it." She suddenly interjected, "and I know exactly what you mean."

"What?" Jayden raised an eyebrow. "Who could you possibly feel inadequate to? Neptune of all people?" He was rewarded with a slight giggle in response.

"She may seem silly, and really she is, but when the time comes..." silence assaulted the room during her pause. "She is really worthy of her position." She paused again, to let Jayden absorb what she had said. "People expect me to be that reliable. I understand what it feels like to have such big expectations on you. Now that Neptune has failed, we need to fill her position."

"I see..." Jayden slowly agreed. He hadn't known this Neptune personally, but he had heard IF and Histoire talk about her, and now with what she had said, he understood much better. "Still, I feel like I'm not doing anything helpful..."

"Well, if you weren't being helpful, I would have told you to stay behind so you wouldn't get hurt." The two locked eyes for a moment. Would she really have told him to stay behind? "That's the last thing I want: my son getting hurt because of me."

She closed her eyes and leaned on his shoulder. "You're a good kid, Jayden. You're likable, and good-hearted... I think there's more hero to you than you know."

Jayden looked at her, pain once more in his eyes, "I'm nothing special though." He sighed. "I'm just here because I somehow got caught up in this mess by when we met in the guild." He put his head in his hands. "I'm just a kid who wanted to do the right thing."

Histoire lightly touched his chin with her fingertips, moving his head so he was eye to eye with her. She stared into his eyes, passionately, sincerely, and most of all, with the warmth of someone who cares. "Sometimes that's all you need to make a hero." she said.

Jayden was slightly shocked. But at the same time, he was comforted. Just like always, she was right. She put her head on his shoulder once more and leaned against him. Jayden sort of enjoyed her comforting touch. "Thanks, Mom." He looked over to her to find her eyes closed and her breathing slowed. He silently chuckled to himself.

"Alright then, to bed with you." And with that, he picked up the sleeping oracle and brought her back to her bed, laying her down, tucking her in and returning to his own bed. He layed down finally finding the peace to sleep. His own words echoed in his head. He thought about Wyn, and how well this timeline had gone so far. Again, his own words rang through his head. He thought about Neptune, HIS Neptune, and he thought about saving this future. One more time, he could hear his words. He clenched his fist as he dozed off.

" _I promise._ "

* * *

Jayden woke up with a strong conviction that today was the day. Today he would change the future for the better. Today was the day he told destiny that he wouldn't follow its path. He quickly got dressed into some of his old clothes, they still fit somehow, and headed out to the kitchen where Histoire was at the table, two plates of toast sitting in the middle. He seated himself across from her. She gave him a smile.

"It's been a while since we did this," she told him, "sat down like a proper family, I mean." he nodded. "I know we're in a bit of a crisis, but it feels good to be here with you now, Jayden." Jayden smiled.

"I'm glad you feel that way, Mom." he replied, "It's good to be home for proper." Histoire nibbled a piece of toast, and Jayden did the same, only just now realizing how hungry he was. After breakfast, Histoire got to the point, much like Jayden did. It quickly became evident where he'd gotten it from. He'd also received her gift for tactics, strategy, and magic, but the student hadn't quite exceeded the talent of the master yet.

"So here's the fault in the timeline, and it's not you, nor is it your own inability to change the timeline, you've been doing that just fine." The said, "the real problem is the goddesses and their party members. They keep reverting the future to where it's going. What we need to do, is remove the goddesses from the equation." Jayden raised an eyebrow.

"Does that not defeat the purpose in the first place?" he inquired, slightly confused. That kind of solution had never occurred to him.

"Well, not exactly, what we need to do is first, gather the mascots from the various nations of Gamindustri. I have told the mascots to gather them, but you need them more. Try not to make yourselves known to them. If you do, you'll probably wind up with more of a burden than we can afford to have you with." Jayden nodded. "Go after the Planeptune mascot first. Here's the location, so hurry!" Jayden gave a firm, confirmation nod, and spread his wings.

"This'll only be a moment." He took off, swirling through the sky, landing in the forest where the mascot was a minute or two later. "Fun," he noted, "all the monsters here are total cake for me." he practically strolled through the forest, most monsters minding their own business, or even walking next to him to see where such a powerful person was going. Technically Jayden wasn't human, which made the monsters almost associate him as one of them. Because of that, he didn't have to worry about being jumped by them as he walked. He checked his watch, the one from Switch with the bladed string and counterweight. He swung it around, but couldn't get the hang of it. "I'll leave that to Switch." he noted. He wasn't entirely sure where his alternate souls had gone. Maybe they'd vanished entirely? Maybe he'd just imagined them? That was an interesting thought. He sneezed, then brushed his nose with a handkerchief. He'd also stopped walking, and took a look around. "Where am I?" he questioned. "Did I take a wrong turn... or?" he loked around and opened his map. "Oh." he turned left and walked out onto what seemed to be an array of metal platforms suspended over a swamp. He strolled across the platforms, ignoring the monsters about and walked up to where the mascot should have been. There was a dull purple orb sitting on a pedestal that Jayden could only imagine was probably the mascot. He went to pick it up, but it suddenly burst to life, light surrounding the orb as it flew around him, then landed on his head.

"Hiya!" it said. He looked up at it. "So what can I help you with?" the mascot asked him.

"I need your help. Gamindustri depends on it." The mascot went dull for a moment, as if she were thinking.

"Alright, works for me!" It rolled off his head and floated right in front of him. "Lead the way!" Jayden turned to leave, the mascot stashing itself in his pocket, but he was cut off by a girl running up and hiding behind him. He recognized her from chapter two.

"You again?" he asked himself. "What's up, what's wrong?" he asked her.

"Help me!" she cried as Neptune and Nepgear came running up.

"Hey, turn the underling over to us, or we'll beat you up too!" Neptune called to him. [Cue your favorite remix of the dummy fight from undertale, but Only if you feel like it] Jayden brandished his shields, lighting them up in black and white flames. The blue hair dye burned out of his hair. So much for that. "Hey! You're that kid from the other day!" she and Nepgear transformed into their HDD forms.

"Let's dance." he said calmly. "You know how to fight?" he asked the girl behind him. She nodded quickly, brandishing something of a club. "That'll do. Pick one, stall her for me." The girl ran at Nepgear and began to exchange blows with her. Neptune rushed Jayden down, but he brought up his shields, unleashing a powerful burst of energy upon impact, knocking her back. He bounced back and forth easily, keeping himself ready for anything.

 **"Cross Combo!"**

 **" _Function Psyche!_ "**

When Neptune's sword collided with his shield, he lurched upwards in an extremely peculiar motion, sending her blade flying back, hitting Nepgear with the flying blade, effectively doing the same damage that combo would have done, except reversing it onto Nepgear. He spun once in midair and snap-kicked Neptune directly in the back of the head, effectively reversing her transformation and knocking her out cold. He then turned to Nepgear.

"Do us both a favor and get out of here before I make you." Nepgear bit her lip, but then Grabbed Neptune and got out. [Oh, and if you put on the music from before, you can turn that off now, that is unless you want to keep listening to it] "Well that was quick." he said bluntly. "I think we need to put more of our budget into our fight scenes." he turned to the girl who nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, that was... disappointing, there was a music track and everything, and that took... maybe thirty seconds?" the girl said. Jayden nodded slowly.

"Anyway, that all you needed?" he asked her.

"Yeah! Thanks!" she said. "Not sure what I would've done if I got caught." Jayden nodded, knowingly.

"I swear, those CPUs are just plain wrong now..." he turned back to her, but she was gone. "Okay?" he half-asked half-said. "Let's get back to Histoire and see where she wants us to go next."

* * *

When he got back to the Basilicom, it was awfully quiet. Jayden quickly realized that it was because Histoire was the only one there. Histoire quickly ran up to him and told him the plan. He nodded, wondering whether or not he could pull something like that off. She handed him Memoire Jumun, and he took off, flying for the Gamindustri graveyard.

When he landed, they were all there. All the CPUs, the makers, and even the Oracles, all except Histoire. "Hello." he said to them. "And goodbye. I wish you a better future than this one." Neptune rushed him, but he was prepared!

" **Take this! _Factory Reset!_** " Light flashed from Jayden's palms, changing their memories to a more peaceful state, hoping that when they came back, they'd be more connected to each other, and could avoid future bad endings. And with that, he prepared the biggest jump he'd ever made. He tore open the fabric of space and time and sent them through, a timeline that Histoire had said she knew, one that had a friend of theirs. The tear in reality closed behind them, and Jayden fell to his knees, hacking up blood again. He wasn't sure what dictated the recoil on this, since he wasn't resetting the timeline, rather changing it, but he was making progress, so he forced himself to stand. He turned, the mascot popping out of him.

"That was amazing!" she said. "Now what?" Jayden smiled at the mascot.

"Now we go back to Mom again and see what's next. This is working out so far, so I think we're going to save Gamindustri this time!" Despite being in pain, he almost felt giddy. All of the previous pains had melted away, and the future felt brighter than ever. He also felt like the mascot made him feel better, and he was glad to have such an optimist around. The mascot sat itself on his head as he spread his wings. "My word, this chapter is a clusterfuck of information being thrown straight at the reader... I hope it doesn't confuse anyone too much, or at least not as much as it confuses me." now that he was done breaking the forth wall, we have to do that sometimes, he took off, soaring back towards Planeptune.

* * *

When Jayden landed in the Basilicom, Histoire was ready with another map.

"Wait, wait, wait, you mean the chapter's not over yet?" he asked her. She shook her head.

"Of course not! We've just come back after a huge break! It has to be a long chapter so we don't short the readers! They want material! We have to provide!" Jayden nodded slowly.

"Oh, okay, I was just thinking since this chapter is like, a little over five thousand-two hundred words now, that we might be getting close to being done." Histoire shook her head.

"So far as I know, we might have as much as half, or as little as a quarter to go, it depends on how quickly you get the rest of this done." Jayden nodded slowly.

"Got it..." he said quietly, "So do I go after then next mascot now?" Histoire nodded.

"To Lastation with you, go! I'll be getting the locations of the other two mascots." Histoire told him. He headed outside and took off again.

* * *

"There's the _sixth_ line in this chapter, and that's not including the one after the author's note..." Jayden muttered to himself. He looked at his notebook, checking things off as he flew. "So what have I gotten done this chapter?" he asked himself, "Reset the timeline, talked to Mom finally, saved Mom at the beginning of the chapter, renewed my equipment, reforged my shield, cleaned myself up, shaved for no reason whatsoever, acquired the Purple mascot, helped out a girl in need, and now I'm on my way to get the Lastation mascot." He landed on another metal platform. "And here we are." the Mascot shined to life, light bursting from the orb as if floated over to him.

"How long has it been? Who are you?" the mascot asked him. He gave her the short version, just as he'd given Histoire and the Purple mascot.

"So long story short, I need your help." Jayden said.

"Well... hearing that all the CPUs are gone is quite a shock to me." The mascot said.

"No kidding," Jayden responded, "Trust me, I've had worse." It was true. He thought about waking up in the middle of the sky in the other timeline.

"However, this only strengthens my argument not to join you." she retorted. Jayden froze completely and utterly still.

'Really? Oh really? Why the fu-... how?' he thought to himself. "Beg pardon," Jayden said trying to be polite, "what the fuck?" and failing. "I've already got the Planeptune mascot, your nation's in jeopardy, I need your help to fix the problem, you're doing nothing right now, and you won't help me? What kind of guardian are you?"

The mascot faltered for a moment, but resumed as it had, "My sole purpose is to protect this nation during the CPU's absence. Leaving now would cause the nation to lose its last means of divine protection yet remaining. That would be unallowable. I have made a pact with the True goddess, as well have the other mascots."

Jayden was extremely rapidly losing his cool, "Oh, okay I get you. It's perfectly fine to leave the world to die. That's fine. I see how it is, miss mascot. I'll just leave you to be as you were, letting the everyone rot in hell as they will. That's fine, I get it."

"No!" The mascot screamed. "I told you! I am not to instigate such activities!"

"And just, why not?" Jayden asked. "You told me the what you're doing, not the why you're doing." He was basically done with this mascot. She was making no sense to him.

"Because I am too busy acting as the CPU's proxy in her absence!" It yelled in desperation, trying to prove its point.

"Yeah," Jayden said firmly, "cause I can see you're doing such a great job of that right now." It was dead silent. The only sound was gently flowing water under the resort. The silence was cut short by a small sound.

"CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

Jayden turned and lashed out with his left shield. It connected, bashing the mouse back and leaving him slightly dazed for a moment. "The hell are you doing here?" He asked it.

"I'm gonna destroy that mascot, chu! With no goddesses, no one left to believe in 'em, and no stupid mascots, nothing will be in our way!" The mouse shouted launching a magic ball at the mascot. Jayden parried with his own. The mouse threw a bomb at the mascot, Jayden stepping into the way and tipping the bomb upwards with his shield. Then, he jumped up and smashed the bomb, launching it forwards and directly into the mouse's face. Jayden was getting nervous. Now that damn thing knew exactly where the mascot was, even if he'd just sent it flying, it would be back before long.

"So that was one of the evils plaguing Gamindustri?" Jayden turned back to her.

"Yes ma'am," he responded quickly, "and now the damn thing knows where you are..." he paused. "I'm sorry. This is my fault. Now you'll be forced into hiding here while those guys try to look for you..." despite all that, he wasn't worthy of the mascot. "Damn." he muttered to himself, and turned to leave.

"And you will not even offer to protect me?" the mascot asked expectantly. "It seems like you really should if you think its your fault." Jayden turned back to her.

"That would entail bringing you with me," he said, "you've already made it quite clear to me that although the entire world's like this...

You still think your nation is the only one that matters.

And I can say nothing more to change your mind." Jayden finished before turning to leave again. He took a few steps before the orb stopped him.

"No, you're right. That mouse was right. With the goddesses gone and no one to believe in them, all of us are royally screwed." It said. "I understand now. I apologize for being so closed-minded. I will accompany you and the Purple mascot." The Purple mascot buzzed to life.

"Yay! She's coming with us too? Now we can catch up, black!" the purple mascot beamed. The black orb just seemed to sigh.

The black Mascot talked to Jayden once more. "All those years ago, we made a promise with the True Goddess. She talked about only leaving to accompany a boy who would one day become a legendary hero. She had a small baby with her that almost looked like you. You're that hero, aren't you? The one the goddess spoke of?" Jayden had to think about that. He wasn't sure, but at this point, it almost seemed like he might have been.

"I don't want to give you a definitive answer." He said. "I'm not that special, I'm just a kid who wants to do the right thing. But sometimes..." He thought back to his conversation with Histoire, "that's all you need to make a hero." The orb floated over to him and sat itself on his shoulder.

"Well if that's that case, I'll follow you to the ends of Gamindustri." she said with confidence. Jayden continued walking as he began to talk to her.

"I need a name for you two." he told the mascots, "I don't wanna call you discs, or by colour, that just doesn't seem right. The orb almost seemed to nod in agreement. He took the purple disc in his hand, looking at her. "Can I call you Violet?" he asked her. She whirled around his head.

"I love it!" she exclaimed. He smiled and giggled a bit from her enthusiasm. Now he turned to the black orb.

"Now then... how about Yami?" She considered it for a moment.

"I like that." she said. "Yami. Certainly, you may call me that if it pleases you." With that, Jayden spread his wings.

"We're just making all the progress this chapter, aren't we? Let's keep this up!" He took to the air and rushed back to Planeptune, landing in the courtyard, startling Histoire. "Sorry!" he called to her. "Got the black mascot, though!" he called to her. She nodded with approval, making Jayden feel a bit like a proud little kid again, happy that his mother was approving of him.

"I put in an order for a weapon for you. I asked a friend of mine to make it, he should have it back to me soon." Jayden raised an eyebrow. "Maximillian Penumbra? Our friend, Maxi?" Jayden nodded suddenly. He remembered Maxi now. He was a good friend of his, and a pretty nice guy too. Granted, time flowed differently in his dimension, so he wasn't sure how old Maxi was now, or if he had changed at all. Maxi was in the same world that he'd sent the goddesses to. Hopefully Maxi's wit and charming nature could give that problem a solution. That aside, Jayden took the next map and spread his wings, but Histoire stopped him. "You're progressing faster than 20x what the goddesses were doing, so relax a bit, why don't you?" Jayden shrugged and folded his wings back up. "Go have a look at Planeptune. It's probably a bit different than you remember it." Jayden nodded and headed out the door.

As he walked, he enjoyed the crisp autumnal air blowing around leaves and cooling off the day. He checked his watch. Plenty of time left. He sat down at a cafe and ordered a cup of coffee, then remembered that he didn't like coffee and changed his order to tea instead. She brought him something of a mango tea drink that was actually really good. "Huh." Yami and Violet floated out and plopped into chairs, then suddenly flashed outwards with a brilliant light. He shielded his eyes, but when he could look, unhindered by light, he saw that they'd taken human forms. Violet stretched arms and Yami arched her back slightly.

"Oh, it's been too long since we've been able to do that..." Yami said. She was maybe the height of Neptune with wild black hair that almost looked like a flame extending from her head. She wore a black cloak with black boots and pants, as well as a night sky patterned shirt. She looked at Jayden with dark grey eyes. "It was your own excess energy that allowed us to do this." she told him, "so thank you for that." Jayden raised an eyebrow.

"Um, you're welcome, I guess? I wasn't really trying. It's probably because I slept really well the past few nights. I've had more energy than I knew what to do with." he replied.

"Well, it was enough to help get us powered up and awakened again!" Violet chirped, "So good job!" Violet was about the height of Uni, and her hair was worn in drills, but it was a darker purple, like Neptune's HDD. She work a golden shoulderpads, connected by a similarly golden chain, with a cape extending from the backside of them, purple in colour, it matched her hair. As a shirt, she had on a t-shirt with the Planeptune logo, and for pants, she had a black skirt and stockings. On her feet were sneakers similar to Neptune's. She leaned on Jayden's arm, closing her eyes and sighing. "Relaxing with friends is the best!" she said. Jayden smiled and ordered two more drinks for the two of them; they wanted to try what he had. When they were brought out, Violet eagerly sipped hers. "Mmmmm!" she exclaimed, "It's sweet, and cold, and oh so good!" Yami had a sip.

"Hm." she said quietly. "That IS good. I like that." Jayden smiled, glad to know that they enjoyed their drinks. After a while, Jayden noted a man struggling with some packages. He walked over.

"Hey, you need a hand with that?" he asked. The man nodded quickly and Jayden helped him by grabbing most of the boxes and holding them himself. "Where're we going? You lead, I follow." The man brought Jayden down a few blocks, Violet and Yami close behind, then lead him into a warehouse. There was a large machine in the warehouse, a panel in the middle where it seemed someone would stand. A shiver went down Jayden's spine; this room reminded him of the seal room in the Basilicom. Jayden got a good look at the man now. He looked mid-twenties, wearing a brown tie, the same colour as his hair, and his eyes were also brown, but much darker. He had thin eyebrows and was wearing a lab coat and white shirt. "What's all this? Oh, and what's your name?" he asked the man.

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba." he said, offering his hand for a shake, "Nice to meet you, and thanks for helping me carry these." Jayden shook his hand.

"No problem, you need help getting the parts together and finishing it? I can help you with that too." The man considered this then nodded.

"Yes, please. Your friends can help too if they want." Jayden waved Yami and Violet over. "So here's how this is going to go."

As they put they machine together, Jayden and Akihiko had been talking. "So you just wound up in this dimension? No idea how?"

"None whatsoever," Akihiko replied, "Just happened one day. Not sure how. All I know is that I'd like to get back rather soon. I was working on something." Jayden tightened a bolt.

"That should be it." Jayden said. "Now you can head back to your own dimension." Akihiko held up one hand.

"Not quite yet, there's one more thing I want to do." he installed a button into the side of the machine and turned to Jayden. "If you ever need anything, hit this button. It will inform me, in my world, that you're asking for me in yours. If I can ever return the favor to you, don't hesitate to call me." Jayden nodded.

"Why thank you, Mr. Kayaba." Jayden said with a smile.

"Please, we're friends, or at least we should be at this point. You can just call me Aki." he replied. Jayden nodded as Yami and Violet walked over.

"That was fun!" Violet said. Her face was smudged with what was either oil or some kind of dirt. Jayden raised an eyebrow.

"Hey uh... Violet? you got a little something right... there..." he raised his hand and gestured to the point on his own face where she had something on hers, said point being his entire face. Violet made a bit of a blank face before Yami grabbed a wet rag and wiped off Violet's face, cleaning off the oil and dirt. There was a bit of a smudge left on her cheek. Jayden walked over and wiped it off with his thumb, Violet turning a bit red in the process. She smiled at his touch, even if that was all it was for. "I would say: see ya around, but I think we both know better than that." Aki nodded and stepped into the machine.

"Until next time, Jayden." he said, and with that, he disappeared. Jayden stretched and yawned.

"I dunno about you guys, but I could use a nap." Jayden said, his eyes only half open. " I don't think writing that we're sleeping is anything anyone wants to read, so when was the last line break?" Yami shook her head, disapprovingly.

"How many times do you plan to break the fourth wall in this chapter?" she asked.

"That depends, how many times have I done so already?" Yami took a moment to think.

"Maybe four or five times including this one," she replied, "Too many if you ask me."

"Well then, it's a good thing I didn't." Jayden quickly shot back. "Now cue that line break, I need that nap.

* * *

Jayden woke up feeling quite refreshed, and ready to go. Histoire seemed to know that Yami and Violet were able to take human forms, not being surprised in the slightest when they had walked in with him. He stretched his arms up and outwards, extending to his full range of motion, then rubbing the sleep from his eyes. With that, he strolled out to the kitchen again, grabbed a snack, then checked his watch with a cookie in his mouth. It read 5:30, which was probably enough time to go and grab another mascot, maybe even both. He hunted down Histoire who handed him another map. After examining it, he was about to take off, when Yami and Violet came running out to his side, returned to their orb forms, and jumped on for the ride. It took Jayden all of twenty minutes or so to reach Lowee, but histoire had noted several problems that were going to make this troublesome. The most worrying problem being that the mascot had a seal on an ancient evil of Gamindustri, and moving the mascot would remove the seal. Then again, he'd faced an ancient evil before and won for the most part. For the most part... whatever, cross that bridge when you get to it. Jayden took a moment to straighten his thoughts before grabbing his phone. It was from Maxi, asking him for assistance in storming a castle. Granted, Jayden would have loved to help, but he had more pressing matters to attend to. Maxi could build himself an army, Jayden had seen him do it. Jayden touched down in the area, which appeared to be composed of colourful toy bricks. Jayden looked around, trying to see if he could find the Lowee Mascot anywhere. Violet and Yami floated just in front of him.

"Hey! We can sense her nearby! Follow us!" Jayden headed off, following the two glowing orbs down a narrow path with walls on both sides. It was very much a hallway without a roof. When Jayden emerged on the other end, there was a robot, eyes glowing red, with shiny metal plating. Jayden ducked down and snatched the orbs out of the air before the robot could notice them. He peeked up over his hiding spot to see what was going on. The robot seemed to not have legs, but had two long arms, each equipped with a weapon, one had an axe, and the other had... well he wasn't sure what that was. The robot also seemed to have a tail, and was floating above the mascot's pedestal, as if it were getting ready to destroy it. Jayden wasn't having any of that, but he didn't have any real way of taking that robot down. He'd returned Histoire's tome before he'd gone off to relax, so that was an issue. He knew he had his shields, but with a robot like that, he might only be able to stall it. Nonetheless, maybe that was all he needed. He jumped out, calling the robot's attention. If he had one thing over it, then that would be speed over strength. The robot came up to him, but didn't attack for a few moments. Matter of fact, it was more that a few moments, the robot seemed to be waiting for him to attack. Jayden tried to think back to last chapter when we made fun of the point and click adventure game. After a moment, Jayden picked up on what this was.

"It's not that it looks like you're just waiting for me to attack, you actually ARE waiting for me to attack, aren't you?" he asked the robot. It didn't respond. "What is this, a hack and slash game?" the robot was indeed waiting for him to attack, so Jayden decided not to disappoint it. He jumped up and struck the robot straight in the chest, but it's frontal armor was too thick. "Wait, what?" Jayden simply bounced off of it. The robot only just attacked after that, to which Jayden narrowly backflipped out of the way. "Wait, was I just waiting the- oh." Jayden realized that he'd made a mistake. "So this is just an **_Adlez_** game now? Let's see if anyone gets that reference the first time they read it. I dunno, if it's anything like one of those, we're gonna be waiting for a while." Jayden waited for the robot to attack again. When it brought down its axe, Jayden responded with a shield bash, throwing it off balance, giving himself an opening. He launched himself high into the air, high enough to clear the robot's head, then giving a spin, swinging his shield fast enough to slash the back of it's head with the sharpened edge, dealing a rather formidable amount of damage. The robot turned around to face him again. He jumped over to the left, then rolled around the robot, then struck it from behind. The robot seemed to be starting to short out. Maybe Jayden was stronger than he thought? Nonetheless, he charged his shields with electricity and slammed the robot over the head. Regardless of whether or not that would have pierced the robot's armor, the robot stumbled and fell to a heap on the floor. For an exciting twelve seconds, Jayden thought he was winning, but the robot simply got back up again, it's health bar seemingly refilling itself from absolutely nothing. Before he could call bullshit, his phone went off. He pulled it out to check it, and when he pressed the button, a lustrous blue sword burst into existence, floating just in front of him. His eyes sparkled before he took the blade and looked at his phone again.

" _Forged by Maximillian Penumbra. Thanks for your patronage. I hope it serves you well!_ " is what the message said. It was forwarded from Histoire's phone. Jayden shook his head with a wide smile.

"Maxi, you marvelous bastard." he muttered to himself before grabbing the sword. The handle was long enough to use two hands, but Jayden found it more than easy enough to use one. He jumped up, over the robot's attack, and spun in midair, slicing the robot's head from its body. The blade seemed to speak to him, guiding his actions. It offered its name: Fidelity, feminine and attractive, but still deadly. He could tell that the soul of the blade was female, unlike Zhen's soul which was male. "Nice to meet you Fidelity," he told her, "pleasure to be working with you." He ran over to the mascot. "Hey! There's no time to explain!" as he said this, another robot spawned behind him. "I need your help, and I can see that the seal is breaking. Let's do this..." he gave the mascot the REALLY short version, "So I'll help you, then you help me, that work?" The mascot hardly paused.

"We've no other choice. As soon as I move from this pedestal, every last killachine is coming out! Are you ready?" Jayden nodded. "Then there's no more time left! There's nothing else to do! Let's do this!" The mascot jumped off the platform and hovered in front of him. Violet and Yami came out as well, ready to help. With a flash of energy, Jayden's white streak of hair and eyes turned bright and shiny yellow, and Fidelity pulsed with energy. He turned to see an army of killachine robots behind him. He dropped into a ready stance.

"And here we go."

* * *

 **And so we've reached the end. There is a chapter of Puppet Master on the way, but it's a LONG one, so it may take longer than I anticipated. I haven't got anything to say other than that, HIT THE OUTRO!**

 **So then, that's all I've got for you this time, I hope you all have a lovely evening, and, be it here or anywhere elsewhere, may we meet again upon another chapter. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH PEACE OUT!**


	21. The Start of A War

**A/N: SWEET INFANT JESUS; HOW MANY WORDS?! I'm not exaggerating, this is my longest chapter yet by three thousand words, and I haven't done the outro yet. We're over 12,000 words right now. HOW DID I GET THIS DONE IN A WEEK?! Anyway, I hope this makes up for some lost time, and I will see you in the end slate with some thing I missed, and some things that my friends caught while I was previewing this.**

 **One last thing before I start is a shoutout to AIYF Productions. I think I've already done this once before, haven't I? Well you know what? He deserves it! So there! Anyway, this particular shoutout is for letting me do a very special something that you'll see towards the end of this chapter, from the end of the author's note, it's oughly 12,122 words to the end... so... I hope this is enough content.**

 **Without further ado, here's Chapter Twenty One: _The Start of a War_**

* * *

Neptune's eyes snapped open and she sprang to her feet, blade drawn. Noting that there were no enemies in the immediate vicinity, she put away her blade and put her hands on her hips. She had a look around before pursing her lips and furrowing her brow. It looked like Virtua Forest, but it didn't seem the same as the one she'd just come from. Night was falling quickly, and she knew that meant that the monsters around here would quickly get more hostile. Wanting nothing to do with that, she headed off for the nearest inn. When she arrived in Planeptune, she purchased a room for the night and settled down to sleep.

Waking up in the morning brought the question of both when and where she was. When was probably more important, and the where suggested dimension and world, she wasn't stupid enough not to realize she was in her own nation, but she also noted that she couldn't jump to conclusions. This could have easily been something completely different where Planeptune did exist yet, or not at all. She headed off to the Basilicom for some information, figuring that was probably the best place to go. What she noted, however, was that her nation was different. It had a much different colour scheme, darker colours, different shades and tints here and there. Planeptune, her version at least, had much brighter colours, and better design choices. Neptune knew she was powerful, but these designs looked like designs from earth, and she could topple those buildings without even transforming. When she arrived in the Basilicom, she rang the bell and Histoire came to the front desk. Sitting on the front desk was a very peculiar metal box with a red light in the middle. Neptune decided to ignore the box, seeing as it was unimportant. To confirm her suspicions, she asked Histoire the first question very carefully; ready to run if she had to. "Where am I?" she asked Histoire, who was much smaller than her own version. Histoire straightened a small pair of glasses on her face before looking up.

"This is Genesis, Lady Iris' land. One of the four main nations of Gamfactori." Gamfactori? So this was a different world then.

"One of the four 'main' nations, you say?" Neptune inquired further, stressing the word main.

"Well yes, the four main nations are Genesis, this one, Eden, Lady Yellow's land, Tari, Lady Cyan's land, and Appland, Lady Grey's land." Neptune's head was spinning from Histoire's response. Those names sounded familiar, all except the grey one.

"Okay then, what are the other ones? You said there were eight. There must be four side nations then, right?" Histoire nodded, "You don't seem to mind that I don't know all of this. Doesn't it confuse you that I know so little?" Neptune asked out of confusion.

Histoire shook her head. "You're not the first traveler I've gotten. There are many like you, and really it doesn't bother me at all. This is the second time today that I'm telling someone all of this." Neptune nodded slowly. That at least gave her hope that the other one was Jayden. "The four side nations are Planeptune, Purple's land, Lastation, Black's land, Lowee, White's land, and Leanbox, Green's land." Neptune had to ask about the first traveler.

"You said I wasn't the first one in here today. Who was before me?" she asked.

"Oh, you know him? I didn't catch his name, and if you don't want to tell me yours either, that's quite alright, but he was a fellow about your age, maybe a little shorter, wearing a blue t-shirt and jeans. He had a big backpack on, it sort of looked like a medicine chest, and he had a mask on his shoulder. He had orange hair about the length of his shoulders, and he was looking for someone named Jayden." Neptune's eyes lit up.

"Oh, I'm looking for the same boy. Can you tell me where this other kid got off to?" Histoire nodded.

"Last I saw him; he was off to Appland to stock up on new technology. He was moving pretty quickly. You should do the same if you hope to catch him." Neptune nodded and thanked mini-Histoire, then ran out the door. She had a hoverboard, but she doubted whether or not she could call it from here. She had to try; it would help if she could get it.

* * *

Jayden slashed through robot after robot, slashing through them like cutting through soft butter with a hot knife. After slashing through literally hundreds, there was one robot that was bigger than the rest. It was also unarmed. The robot raised both middle fingers before blasting Jayden with lasers, knocking him off his feet. He quickly recovered.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, OKAY! That robot just flipped me the double bird... and then lasers came out..." he noted, "Two can play at that game!" He raised his own middle fingers before drawing back Fidelity and rushing through the robot at such speed that he formed a velocity cone around himself, bursting into flames, energy radiating outwards, literally moving so quickly that he formed a laser as he burst through the robot, slashing it cleanly in half. He gave the blade a spin on the other side. "By the true goddess, but you are beautiful, aren't you, Fidelity?" Jayden could hardly say he knew the feeling of love outside of maybe Histoire and His Neptune, but he could say that he was in love with this blade. Even if he tripped, the blade seemed to catch him. Even if he fell short, the blade lurched forward just the perfect amount more. Even if he stood and put his confidence in the blade, she responded, and together, they made their enemies fall. The killachines began to come in different variants, now wielding guns. Jayden wasn't that great at dodging guns, and the few times he'd been shot hadn't been fun. His head filled with sound again. It was the same voice that had first granted him his time powers.

"Your powers may be weakened, but they will slowly return. With Fidelity, try your tactician sided mind." Jayden wasn't entirely sure that he knew what that meant, but he could try. He took cover behind a half wall of the toy bricks that composed the area. He got his back up against the wall and peeked out from one side. The killachines stood still as if they were waiting. "This skill is called 'Forced Courtesy.' It will make your enemies wait for you to attack before they take their turn. Think of it as a turn-based strategic RPG game. I know you like those." Jayden did indeed like those. Violet and Yami took places beside him, their backs up against the cover as well. The white mascot, now in her human form, tall and commanding, yet not overbearing, with mid length white hair covering her left eye, and a white cape, a grey shirt, and blue pants complete with white and blue shoes. She wielded a rifle in combat. It looked like a musket rifle, but it fired several shots in bursts before she had to reload it. To do that, she merely pulled back a lever, and something told Jayden that the gun simply reloaded itself.

"Do you have a name?" Jayden asked her.

"Beg pardon?" the mascot replied.

"Well, I've already named Yami and Violet here, I was just curious if you needed one as well." she shook her head.

"If I had one, I've forgotten it, what would you call me?" Now didn't seem like the time to be contemplating such things, but Jayden didn't really care.

"How does Buranka work for you?" she paused before giving him a thumbs up.

"Works for me. Matter of fact, I'd even say I'm quite fond of it-!" As the newly titled Buranka finished the word 'it' a bullet grazed the top of the wall they were behind. Jayden rolled his eyes.

"Lovely... If I had Zhen here, I bet he could have turned into a gun or something..." Violet had a staff, and Yami had twin pistols. In other words, his magic was his only range, and he was rather pressed for mana points at the moment. Fidelity seemed to hum, almost buzz even, in protest. "Right, right, don't get me wrong, Fidelity, I love you too, but Zhen is... we go back. Like... Oh... I'm talking to a sword... about another sword..." Fidelity picked herself up and clocked him over the head with her hilt. "Ow! Fine, fine, just come here." Fidelity placed herself delicately in his grip again, and Jayden readied himself. "Party time." He grabbed the sandbags and flipped up and over them backwards and landed in a crouching position. When the killachines were able to form a line of sight to him, they open fired, but didn't actually advance. Jayden strafed left and right, and then ducked behind another wall not too far away. He popped out just enough to rattle off a spell, and funnily enough, the machines didn't attack while he was aiming. Jayden took that to his advantage, and fired off five fireballs, each one connecting with a killachine, but only lessening their health, not taking them out entirely. He did manage to inflict one with burn, however. He signaled to Yami that it was her turn to move. "So now we've gone from puzzle/dungeon-crawler to hack-and-slash to turn-based-RPG?" he took a moment. "I like it."

Yami hopped over the half-wall behind her and open fired on two killachines at once with her dual-pistols. Whatever kind of ammo she was packing must have had one hell of a punch seeing as she managed to take out both of them. Jayden signaled to Violet, who only just peeked out from the wall, just enough to score a solid line of sight between herself and the already weakened killachines from Jayden's attack. She lobbed something that looked like a bright ball of energy, but exploded on contact like a grenade, bursting away the already damaged killachines. Lastly, he signaled to Buranka who jumped up, skillfully leapt over the half-wall, vaulted over a full wall, and dropped a grenade on the other side before climbing back over. The resulting explosion sent some of the killachines flying. Jayden, before ending his turn, whispered to Fidelity: "Find Zhen and bring him here, I think I know how to repower him. Fidelity flew away as his turn ended. The killachines' turn was uneventful, the remaining ones were either too far away, or behind walls and couldn't attack. When it was Jayden's turn again, Fidelity planted herself in the ground next to him and Zhen fell into his hands but a moment later. He drew Fidelity, but sheathed her as soon as he did so. Jayden ran a powerful jolt of electricity through the dull, heavy blade that was Zhen at the moment. He powered up just long enough for the blades to withdraw, and become just a handle again. Getting an idea, Jayden performed an all-out frontal assault on this turn, charging one of the larger killachines that was melee only. He shocked Zhen again, deploying the blades just long enough to drive Zhen's titan blade through the killachine's head armor. Zhen seemed to respond to the carnage of metal, waking up, literally vibrating off the rust on his blade, and sharpening himself, renewing his own life. When Jayden drew Fidelity, Zhen changed shape, transforming into a more fitting blade for dual wielding. With Fidelity, a beautiful, double-edged, vibrant blue broadsword with a wide guard and long handle, and Zhen, now a double-edged black sword with a flat blade, the energy part lining the blade, increasing its cutting power, and guard that seemed to point to the ground with a long grip and a longer blade, longer than Jayden was tall, Jayden was a force to be reckoned with. He brought Fidelity down first, then Zhen followed, and he cleaved the killachine cleanly in half, splitting it by its prime meridian. Upon doing so, the other killachines began to move more slowly. Were they hesitating? Jayden didn't care, it was an opportunity. He got himself behind cover before signaling to Yami that it was her turn. Yami turned and fired. One well-placed shot was enough to fill each killachine, and she had a lot of rounds to fire before she was out of ammo and had to reload. Violet went next, blowing up another group of enemies. Buranka open fired next, taking out yet another group. Jayden noted that there weren't any more coming. Snapping out of his turn-based mindset, the enemies returned to moving at their own leisure again.

Going back to his old strategy, now with two blades, Jayden hacked apart every killachine in his path, mainly ignoring the bullets that grazed his clothing, and occasionally his skin. As he jumped up and cleaved the last killachine in his path, he saw, what he thought was, the last one standing. He sheathed Fidelity and drew Zhen into a new position, giving him a spin on the way, and Zhen transformed into a high-tech version of a sniper rifle. Jayden didn't bother himself with the details, but rather charged down the killachine, dodging bullets in the process. His perception of time slowed just a bit, and he could see the bullets fly through the air. He slipped left and right, rolling back and forth. "And now it's time for magical bullshit that you only see in movies." he lunged forward through the air, and planted his foot on a bullet. Raising the middle finger to physics, and basically just how anything worked, he jumped off the bullet, to another, then another before leaping over the robot and blasting it in the head with a rifle round. Unfortunately, the bullet didn't finish it off completely. When he landed on the other side, the robot brought down its blade. Jayden jumped to the side and brought out Fidelity, bringing it under the killachine's blade, and Zhen transformed into a metal gauntlet and sleeve, grabbing the giant blade and heaving, then throwing the thing into a nearby wall. He rushed forward, Zhen back into his one-handed blade, and drove both blades through the robot and ripped the blades outwards, cutting the killachine to pieces in the process. Unfortunately, again, that killachine was only the one that he had THOUGHT was last. The killachine was already in the process of bringing down its blade, and Jayden couldn't willingly slow down time, nor could he really do anything about this. Granted that blade probably wouldn't finish him in one shot anyway. What he didn't take into consideration was status effects. The blade of the axe cut downwards, beating him to the floor, and inflicting him with paralysis, in other words, one of the only status effects he was actually susceptible to. He could barely move his head. Violet, Yami, and Buranka were too far away to come to his aid. Suddenly, Jayden's head was filled with that voice again.

"Jayden! In situations like this where others are more opportune for action, you need only ask." she said, "Like a god; things obey you without question. Use this now." Jayden looked up and locked eyes with Buranka, and at that moment, a symbol, a cross with pointed ends, appeared in Jayden's right eye and flashed outwards, appearing in Buranka's eye as well. "When issuing orders, you may be able to issue some of your own skills. Use this now." Fidelity rushed from her sheathe, flying over to Buranka within the space of the blink of an eye. Controlling Buranka to move as he did, Buranka caught Fidelity and rushed at an equally blinding speed, swinging Fidelity in an upwards arc, rending the killachine in an upper-cutting motion, sending it flying upwards, over Jayden.

"Fuck it! "Jayden recovered from his paralysis in that moment and jumped upwards. His last command to Buranka was to throw Fidelity back to him. Fidelity left Buranka's hand and sort of just appeared in Jayden's hand and he spun back around, using both hands and cutting the killachine in half twice, finishing it by knocking it back into a wall and letting it explode. He brushed himself off, letting his health begin to regen. Buranka grabbed her head and shook herself off before glaring at him. "Sorry." he said, "That's the first time I've ever actually seen that, or done that. I wasn't even really sure how that worked. Buranka smacked him across the face. After taking a moment to recover, Jayden faced her again. "Yeah, I deserved that. Again, Sorry." She crossed her arms and huffed.

"Well, at the very least, you're alive. So I guess you had some sense of justification..." Jayden looked up at her again. "Still, you do it again without telling me, and I will kill you myself." She blushed slightly before gently punching him in the arm. "Though, I'm glad you're okay." Jayden smiled at this.

"Right then, let's report back to Histoire, then we gotta go get the last mascot." he noted. The mascots resumed their orb forms and returned to him. He spread his wings in his usual crouching flashy fashion. With that over and done with, Jayden took off for home.

* * *

Jayden almost crashed into the balcony when it happened. It was a strong pulse of energy that rang through several layers of dimensions. He knew it well. It was Neptune calling her hoverboard. He focused closely, pinpointing the hoverboard, and then tearing another hole in space and time, allowing the board to shoot through to wherever Neptune was. He remembered the pulse and hung onto it. That was his key to finding her. His Neptune. He could hardly wait, but all the same, he needed the last mascot. He'd have to set himself some priorities. Jayden landed on the balcony and was snapped back to reality by the sound of gunfire. He slammed his door open and ran downstairs as fast as he could. When he emerged, he was not ready for what he saw. Three armed soldiers had Histoire cornered, firing at a magic shield around her. He wasn't sure how long she'd been holding out for, but by the look of it, she couldn't hold out for very much longer. Zhen blinked into existence, and Jayden threw him at the first soldier, then drew Fidelity. By the time Zhen hit the first soldier, he was on the second and split the soldier's helm from behind. He grabbed the gun from the second soldier and shot the last soldier, point-blank, right in the face. He drew Zhen from the soldier's corpse and let Zhen disappear back into his room. He then sheathed Fidelity and checked on Histoire.

"What happened?" he asked, "These guys are in ASIC gear, has it really gotten that bad?" Histoire nodded.

"They learned of the goddesses' absence somehow, and they've come to strike." she said, "It's absolute blitzkrieg, they've already taken the other three nations, we're the only ones left." Jayden nodded.

"Right then. Lemme get changed. My current clothes aren't exactly fit to fight a war in." Jayden headed upstairs to grab some new clothes, while Buranka, Yami, and Violet went off to do the same. Jayden got into his room and slipped off his hoodie and his jeans, putting on a bullet-proof hoodie and some camo fatigue pants. It was one of his old hoodies, and wasn't like the magical black one that had resulted from his fusion with Switch. Jayden grabbed a few knives from his drawers, stocking his bags and pockets and equipping a contingency plan from a while back. It was two blades attached to his wrists, very much a hidden blade. He heard a knock at the door and when he indicated that it was open, Buranka came in. Buranka had changed into a blue camo fatigue pants and a white hoodie with a white shirt underneath with a v-neck that was just a bit too low for how big her chest was. Jayden maintained his focus though and turned to face her proper.

"Yami and Violet are already downstairs." she said. "I'll make sure to watch your back." she said. She had her rifle from before, and a newer, much more advanced looking sniper rifle.

"Well then, that makes me feel much better." he replied with a confident grin, "If you're all ready, then let's go down and report to Histoire." As he finished saying this, he grabbed Buranka and dove to the floor as the window was blown out by something akin to a mortar. He stood back up after making sure Buranka was okay and brushed himself off. "Or we could just grab a gun, jump out the window and get right the fuck to business! Ladies and gentlemen, HERE WE FUCKING GO!" Jayden grabbed Zhen who decided he was going to transform into a 1400 Xeno, in other words, the equivalent of an elephant gun, except for dragons and golems. In other, other words, it was a gun with three barrels, huge rounds (that reloaded themselves because of Zhen's magic), extreme armor penetration, extreme kickback, and extreme stopping power, AND extreme power and damage behind each shot of which he could fire three at once. Again, in other words, it was probably the most ludicrous gun Zhen could think of, and Jayden liked it. He jumped out the window, following his outburst narration, and pulled out Zhen and blasted a monster to pixels in front of the Basilicom. "Oh, so they're using monsters too?" a few tanks were pulling up to the Basilicom. Jayden wasn't having it. He pointed at one of the tanks and a bolt of lightning blew the tank to pixels. Then he fired one of Zhen's barrels at once, almost knocking himself over in the process, blowing apart another tank. One tank decided it was going to fire at him, but Jayden caught the explosive shell in mid-air and threw it back, blowing the tank up with its own attack. Before the next tank could fire, Jayden flung his shield, plugging the barrel and watched as the tank exploded on itself. He chuckled a bit as he shield came flying back. The last tank was a bit bigger, but Jayden didn't really care. He pulled a havoc-storm grenade (the equivalent of a handheld baby-nuke, except with lightning and storming winds included) out of his bag and jumped up on top of the tank. He tore open the hatch, slammed the grenade inside, then slammed the hatch back down on top of the tank, searing it shut with a burst of flames. He leapt back, watching the tank explode in a hellfire of raining lightning bolts and mini hurricanes. "True goddess, it's a good thing they man these things and fight with monsters, otherwise I'd feel kinda bad about that... actually, no I wouldn't they started it, I ended it." he flipped Zhen over and let him blink out of existence. As he turned to walk back inside, he heard a roar. He turned around to be greeted by a charging monster, ready to tear him in half, but he heard one hell of a bang and the monster's head, followed shortly by the rest of it, burst into pixels. He looked for the source and spotted Buranka inside, the barrel of the sniper rifle smoking from the shot. He gave her a thumbs up and she smiled from her perch. He headed back inside to check on the others.

* * *

Neptune was almost hit in the face when the hoverboard burst through. In all honesty, she wasn't expecting it to work. At the moment it did, however, she was briefly excited to catch a faint sense of Jayden, but said hope was quickly extinguished when the faint sense died out as well. Neptune was clever enough to connect the dots however, seeing him transport them both to alternate worlds like that wasn't that far of a stretch from this. With that in mind, she got on the hoverboard like normal and rushed off to find the boy Mini-Histoire had mentioned. She wasn't sure what Appland was like, but she was about to find out.

As she rode along at blistering speeds, she noted that Appland was the only nation she didn't have experience with. She'd made friends with the other three nations besides her own, and Iris and Peashy were there as well. Rei had been tricky, but she had managed that as well. Granted, when she had done all of this previously, Iris was the CPU of Planeptune, but that was a minor difference. Nearing the edge of the grey nation, she hopped off her hoverboard and stowed it away. Unsure of whether or not she wanted to try a Basilicom she knew nothing about, instead she had a look around, looking for a kid with orange hair. Everything else was so colourless that it seemed like he might stand out a bit. Unfortunately, that also applied to her, seeing as her hoodie was black, but had several coloured accents and zippers, as well as her hair-clips and shoes. Her stockings probably didn't help either. After walking around for a bit, she heard a call from the opposite end of an alleyway. She turned to see three men, sleazy looking guys, calling to her, whistling and calling names. She found it particularly distasteful, and had half a mind to teach them a lesson, but decided against it for the moment. That changed when they tried to make a move on her. Neptune simply shoved them off and kept walking, a little quicker, bearing her teeth to herself, trying not to lose her cool. When one of the guys decided to swing at her, though, she decided she'd had enough. She caught his arm and punched him square in the face, then in the gut, then kneed his crotch and threw him to the floor. His buddies backed up, but a few more guys were quickly coming around the corners. She frowned and drew her blade and went to start, but a ground-breaking shockwave sent all of the guys flying, and her sprawling to her feet.

Neptune looked at what could have possibly created such a huge impact and found a metal monster standing amidst the crater. He stood tall, his torso composed of three main armor plates locked together by more metal plates, his head a metal box, and his arms and legs were little more than metallic cylinders attached to joints. When he stood straight up, he was an intimidating height, and when he turned around, he had a single, solitary red light in the center of his... face... (?) that seemed to bore through her. Neptune scrambled to her feet and sheathed her sword, hoping that he didn't take it as a threat. He turned around fully and walked over to her, his heavy footfalls were, surprisingly, perfectly silent. Standing straight up next to her, he made Neptune feel quite tiny, being roughly 1.75 times her own height. She wasn't short either, standing almost six and a half feet tall. At the end of his huge fingers, (of which he had four, three longer fingers and something akin to a thumb) were claw like structures, long and sharp, fitting of a monster. At the bottoms of his legs, he had no feet, nor any sort of extension for balance; rather his legs were like metallic logs at the bottom of his torso. He almost seemed humanoid, but at the same time, couldn't have been a human with his stature and composition. Neptune wasn't entirely sure WHAT he was, but he didn't look very friendly.

On the contrary, he bent over and his clawed talons rounded off into more finger-like structures. His unblinking red light seemed to be observing her in place of an eye. When he spoke, Neptune almost jumped from his speech, his voice was loud and clear, yet didn't seem to come from anywhere in particular. The tone of his voice didn't sound at all robotic, but rather like a young man. She wasn't sure if this detail was comforting, or just disturbing. "Are you alright?" he asked. Neptune peered past him slightly to see someone else fighting the rest of the thugs on the street. She couldn't see him very clearly from back here. She looked the creature in front of her in the... eye... (?) and nodded a confirmation. "That's good." he put simply. For how short he kept his speech, his voice was almost soothing. "My name is Lunares. Maxi calls me Luno. Call me either, I don't mind."

"Well then, Luno," Neptune said, brushing herself off, "Thank you for the assistance. Your friend over there, Maxi was it? He uh... looks like he could use some help." Luno stood straight up again and reared his head back, looking over at the boy fighting the rest of the thugs.

"Maxi can handle himself," Luno said, "But helping would expedite the process." His fingers sharpened back into claws as he charged the field, his footfalls no longer silent, the street thundering with each step as he charged. Luno pulled back his left side and got down into a charging stance like a football player, shoulder bashing twenty to thirty thugs in one go, swinging his arms around, sending another group flying. Neptune whistled sharply.

"One hell of a crowd control." she noted before drawing her blade again. She zipped in with another move Jayden had taught her, covering extraordinary distance in one step, slashing some thugs out of the way. With the three of them working together, they cleaned out the street in a matter of moments. When it was over, they regrouped. Maxi stood proudly next to Luno, and both of them faced Neptune. Maxi went to speak when the clanging of crashing metal rang out. Luno had been struck in the head by a metal pipe. Hilariously enough, he seemed perfectly unscathed and turned around to the thug with the pipe in hand. The thug seemed to take a moment before hitting himself over the head with the pipe next, saving them the trouble. Now, Neptune turned to asses Maxi.

Maxi was the kid she was looking for, the one that Mini-Histoire had described to her. His orange hair was a bit messy up top, but looked to be in enough order to look good. His eyes were glaring red, a similar colour to Luno's light/eye, but at the same time, were eased and laid back enough not to be threatening. He was indeed wearing a t-shirt, but it was blue and was the exact complimentary colour to his hair. His pants were a confusing combination of jeans and just normal pants, and she wasn't sure what to call them, or how to describe them beyond the colour gray. His shoes were straight black and he was wearing... fingerless gloves. "Fingerless gloves? Really?" Neptune asked him, her face dull.

"I know, but they do serve a purpose." he said, "I'm really into tinkering stuff, and building and engineering is mainly where you'd find me. I prefer to wear full gloves, but this is all they had. They're like Japanese workman's gloves, just without the fingers." Neptune nodded slowly. Maxi both looked and sounded familiar, but she couldn't pinpoint who exactly he looked like. She'd have to work it out later. "Now then, I suppose you're searching for me because you heard I was looking for Jayden, yes?" he inquired. She raised an eyebrow and took a defensive step back.

"I suppose so, but how did you know that?" she asked. Maxi gestured his head slightly towards Luno.

"I don't suppose you saw the little box on the counter, did you?" Luno folded himself up into a small box, his entire gigantic body, complete with every last part, folding up into his head. As he sat there, the only thing giving away that it was Luno was the little red light on the front of the box. Neptune bent over and picked the box up, noting that it was very light.

"I did notice him..." she said, "I just didn't think that this was possible." she shook Luno's box up and down a bit. "How the hell does this work?" she asked, "it seems like he'd weigh a ton."

"Luno can manipulate his own weight," Maxi said, "I'm not entirely sure how it works myself, I didn't build him, I actually found him and patched him up. When he unfolds himself, you'd be hard pressed to be able to move him, even with a bulldozer... but then again, you're probably stronger than a bulldozer, aren't you, Neptune?" he asked. She didn't like how he knew so much about her. He shook his head with a bit of a chuckle. "Sorry, sorry, I can tell you want answers. I know you from a different world, somewhere I'd like to get back to actually. I'm working on a machine, so give me a hand with it, and I'll have us at Jayden's world's Basilicom in under a week."

* * *

Jayden vaulted over a hunk of burned metal and turned, elbowing a soldier in the face before hitting the dirt, narrowly avoiding another tank-shell. It'd been about a week of this, and he was getting tired of gunning down and taking out every last force ASIC had. The only ones he hadn't fought yet were-

That thought was cut off by a thunderous crash. The CFWs had arrived. This was the moment of truth. If Jayden could end them here and now, then he'd be able to end it permanently. Then again, he knew that the CFWs were each a part of the Deity of sin, but that would have to be dealt with later. MUCH later. Jayden wasn't sure if he could handle a CFW, let alone all four, but he had to try. Yami, Buranka, and Violet came running up to him and got ready behind him. Jayden drew Zhen and Fidelity, and braced for impact. He charged down the field, signaling for each mascot to break off and stall a CFW for him. He himself took Magic. He jumped up, Zhen in his 1400 Xeno form, and shot Magic in the back of the head, but his shots were blocked by her scythe. Zhen shifted back to his one-handed form as Jayden clashed with the CFW, blades crashing, metal scraping, blood shedding. He jumped back and fired off a volley of magic bolts, powerful enough to blow up a tank in one shot. Magic countered with her own, but her own volley was much bigger than Jayden's on spot shot. He crossed his blades and slashed the bolts in half, one by one, each one tolling his strength. Had he even landed a hit yet? Magic was on him, just like that, and she was ready to separate his head from his body. Luckily enough, he managed to lock eyes with her just long enough to get her to stop. She was too powerful for him to control fully, but he was able to force her to teleport herself and the other CFWs back to the graveyard. After he did so, he fell to his knees, gasping for breath. Violet was already there, helping him up. He stumbled weakly, but managed his way back to the Basilicom. By the time he got there, he was already 3/4 of the way healed. His regen was speeding up significantly as he used it more. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to let him stand against a CFW like Magic for very long. Checking in with the others, they wouldn't have lasted much longer either. Histoire rushed over, healing them all back to full health. Jayden, panting heavily, straightened himself out. "Have we found the last Mascot yet?" Histoire smiled a genuine smile. It had been a while.

"I'm glad you asked, because yes. Yes I did." she said, her face full of confidence. Jayden fell onto his back and groaned with relief at the sky.

"OOOKAY THEN!" he shouted to the sky before recovering to his feet, "Gimme that map, Mom; excelsior on that son of a gun." She handed him the map he wanted. "ONWARDS TOWARDS VICTORY!" he yelled out, charging out the door and almost off a cliff. Fidelity nearly had enough time to stop him before he did so. He spread his wings and almost took off without the other three mascots, but Fidelity stopped him from doing that too. After the mascots caught up, he took off, and he started to think about Fidelity a bit more. He still didn't know much about her; the most he knew was that she could move on her own. Furthermore, as he'd just experienced, it wasn't just as simple as controlling the actions of the blade, she could control him too. Granted, Jayden was quite sure that he trusted Maxi enough not to make a faulty blade, but really he didn't care. He felt like he could trust Fidelity, and if he could trust the blade, then he could trust it to save him if he needed it. Jayden never felt like he was battling for control with Fidelity, in the beginning, she seemed to be mostly just for a little extra guidance when he needed it. Her influence had slowly gotten stronger as the week progressed, and now it felt like every swing was one that they made together. With the green mascot in tow, hopefully they would be unstoppable, or at least a match for the CFWs.

Landing in front of the designated cave, Jayden checked his inventory for what he needed. Fidelity? Check. Zhen? Check. Shields? Check. Map? Check. Clothes? Check. Cookies? Check. At the entrance to the cave was a dragon, and not an ancient dragon, but something much more powerful. Its scales were blood red, its eyes a piercing yellow. Its wings seemed to burn the air as they moved, and its fangs protruded from its mouth, showing off their deadly shredding edges. Its claws were at least a foot long each, and were stained with what was undoubtedly the blood of whoever had tried to enter last. Its tail was long and covered in spines, ending in a blade-like structure, most certainly designed for combat. Jayden scoffed and drew Zhen. He took a few steps forwards, and the mascots bailed completely. He turned to them.

"Are you crazy?!" Yami yelled at him. "Do you have a death wish!? Are you trying to get us killed?!" Jayden turned back to the dragon and advanced again.

"Stay behind if you're that scared." he replied. "I'm not at all concerned." Now noticing his presence, the dragon got down low and snarled; giving him a fair warning about what came next. Jayden disregarded its warning and continued to advance, Zhen slowly shifting in his hands. Growing tired of being disobeyed, the dragon took a swipe, then immediately regretted doing so. Jayden turned and fired a barrel of Zhen's 1400 Xeno form into the dragon's claw, blowing it off the end of his arm completely. The dragon reared back and swiped its tail, but Jayden fired the second barrel, the bullets reflecting off the tail's hard armored blade, but knocking the blade away from himself. The dragon went for a magic attack next, exhaling a beam of energy at Jayden. The third barrel fired off, blowing the energy beam into particles of light. The dragon, noticing that he was out of barrels to fire, went for an all-out charge, roaring triumphantly at its next kill. Jayden got down, bracing his legs into the ground, stabilizing himself with every last shred of energy he had...

"Chew on this!"

...and fired all three barrels. The dragon couldn't comprehend what had happened. Surely there was no way it could have understood that Zhen reloaded himself. This quickly led to its downfall as it didn't think to remove itself from Jayden's firing path and remained, right in the line of fire. Without ear protection, any human's eardrums would have completely shattered if they were standing within a foot of Jayden. Another twenty feet out and they'd have a seriously painful ringing in their ears for the rest of the half an hour. Luckily for Jayden, his own ears auto-adjusted to mute loud noises like such. They did unmute, however, to hear the dragon get smacked in the face by three rounds, specially designed for taking down creatures such as it. The beast was sent flying and Jayden merely chuckled as it soared over the cave and crashed down on the other side with a ground-shaking thud. Jayden spun the gun around, winding up with Zhen's handle back in his hand at the end of the spin. Again, a flashy and unnecessary move. After the ground stopped shaking, Jayden could see a twinkle from inside the cave. After reassuring the other three mascots that it was okay, he went off to find what he believed to be the final mascot to find. Inside the cave, with Yami, Buranka, and Violet in their human forms, Jayden looked around for the twinkle he'd seen earlier. Drawing Fidelity and following the bright shine of her blade into the cave, he did indeed find the mascot at the end. He sheathed Fidelity and picked the mascot up. Holding the dark green orb in his hand, he raised it up, holding his arms out in front of him, the orb cupped in his palms; he tried to wake it up.

"Hello there!" he said confidently. The mascot orb filled with vibrancy and floated from his palms, Jayden's arms falling back to his sides. The orb floated just in front of him.

[If you need reference to what the green mascot sounds like, imagine her voice done by Laura Bailey, AKA the same person who does Lucina of Fire Emblem and Female Boss voice 1 of Saints Row three and four]

"Well then, who do we have here?" the mascot inquired. "A boy bearing a similar spirit signature to the true goddess?" she asked. Jayden didn't know what that meant. "You must be the hero who's come to my rescue and defeated that dragon outside, right?" Jayden spoke with the utmost confidence in his response.

"Nope." The answer wasn't the expected one, not from anyone. Jayden wasn't really expecting it himself. However, he knew the reasoning behind it. "I am the one who's come to your aid by defeating the dragon, but I'm no hero, Ms. Mascot. I'm just a young man doing the right thing." The mascot almost seemed to chuckle.

"Damn." she said, "And here was me thinking my knight in shining armor had some along with a kiss and a declaration of how he would protect me forever and ever. Guess I got my hopes up for the wrong thing. Still, you don't seem like you came here just for fun, that would entail being bald and wearing a yellow suit with a white cape and red gloves... Nevermind. What can I help you with?" Jayden whistled sharply.

"I'm glad you asked, so here's the deal..." he started, "so there's this company called ASIC, and they're bringing back the deity of sin, that's a bad thing, and we want to stop them. Now I have the power to reset the timeline, so I've actually tried this a few times, but really it hasn't been going so well. So I talked to Histoire, who's also my mom by the way, and she told me that the problem was the CPUs and candidates themselves. So we got all them in the same spot, then I teleported them to a different timeline, altering their memories a bit before sending them off to a buddy of mine. The real problem arises with my own limitations, because none of us are a match for a CFW on our own. So now Mom tells me I have to go get the mascots, so I grab the Planeptune one first cuz we're already there, then I grab the Lastation one, then I grab the Lowee one, and after a while, a war starts with ASIC because they're all like 'hey the goddesses are gone! Let's all be a bunch of jerks and start a war because we can win when they're not here!' But now, I can't bring the CPUs back, because then we'd get a bad ending again, and that's what I'm trying to prevent in the first place. So now we manage to drive off ASIC for the most part, and it's been like a week, but Mom finally says, 'Hey! I found the last Mascot!' so I came over, found the dragon outside, shot it a few times, like four maybe(?) and then I came in and here you were. Now that I'm here, I need you to come with me. So now, basically, I'd like to ask for your help saving the world." Jayden said, basically summarizing the chapter. "Oh, and by the way, my name is Jayden." that was probably an important detail. Yami spoke up.

"Jayden, don't you think that's a little too much summarizing?" she asked.

"Not at all," the green orb said before Jayden could respond. "Matter of fact, that's perfect for me. I can see the Lastation mascot with you as well as the other two, so there's no reason to delay the inevitable. Besides, I could use an adventure. I love action, don't need any help there."

Jayden snickered first, and then burst out laughing. When he recovered, he looked at the mascot. "Okay..." he said, still recovering, "you are officially my favorite mascot." If the green orb was capable of smiling, it probably would have. "So now I need a name for you." he told her. She seemed confused. "I don't like calling you by colour; it makes you seem like an object, so rather I've given the others names, now I need one for you." Jayden thought about it for a moment. If his Japanese wasn't too wrong, then green was Midoriiro, so... "How about Midori?"

"I love it, kid," Midori responded, "but I suppose I should introduce you to myself proper..." the orb dropped to the floor and transformed into her human form. About the same height as Buranka, Midori had bright green hair which fell to her waist, and flowed a bit in the wind. It was all tied back into a large ponytail, which Jayden wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to question the physics of. She had on a tan shirt with a green cloak over it and black pants on her bottom half. She wore dark green combat boots for shoes. She smiled at him, her eyes a slightly darker green than her hair. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Not-a-hero kid." she said, slapping him on the back. "Feels good to be part of a party again. Now then, let's fuckin' rock." Jayden laughed a bit to himself again. He liked this mascot more and more by the second.

A short flight later put them back at the Basilicom, and was Jayden ready for action. If ASIC wanted a war, then they were getting a war. He just needed a little bit of sharpening on his skills again. Of course, when he landed, Histoire was already ready with training set up. While Jayden trained, Histoire sent out messages to other versions of Gamindustri. With this war determining the fate of this Gamindustri, and wherever ASIC went afterwards, they needed all the help they could've gotten. Weeks passed as soldiers came to the door, some with their own weapons, some with previous training, some with both, and others with one hell of a sense of patriotism. Jayden made a point of being at the door to welcome every last recruit inside. While they were hard at work, so was ASIC, and the two sides came to clash after three weeks' worth of preparations.

* * *

It was a rainy day, just like one where you might expect something to go wrong. Jayden was hard at work, sharpening his accuracy, increasing his strength. At some point or another, Jayden had gotten taller from his original five feet, now standing six foot exactly. His attack had risen sharply, to the point where Jayden could rip through blast doors several meters thick with enough effort. He'd been able to throw a killachine before, now he could basically juggle tanks. His magic was formidable as well. He'd applied a special gel to the back end of his shields, such that he could control their flights paths like magical chakrams. He'd also made newer shields that applied to his upper arms, so he didn't just dual-wield shields anymore, he quad-wielded them. He'd also developed a fighting style with his quad-shields and his blades, to the point where he could have six, sometimes seven with the addition of magic, weapons working at once. Fidelity had only gotten stronger, now capable of slicing through dragon scales effortlessly when combined with Jayden's own strength. The most powerful thing about Jayden now, by far, was his defense. He'd always been defensively built, but now he was almost literally a walking tank. With his four heavy shields and natural regen, he could take what would normally be a fatal blow, and heal it off in moments. Jayden ran around the training yard, slashing targets as they popped up, shattering training dummies as they appeared. He finished, slicing clear through a dummy, arriving on the other side, sheathing his blades, facing Histoire who stopped a timer. She smiled at him.

"Record time." she said, "For the third time in a row." Jayden silently congratulated himself. "However, now the real test comes." Histoire said, interrupting him, "There's an ASIC battalion headed this way. Get ready. Your new outfit is waiting. I know you were looking forward to that." Jayden smiled and headed into his room, throwing off what he was wearing before and donning his new outfit. It was a set of golden armor, fitted almost like scales and with lined blades along the outsides of the forearms. Complete with his hidden blades laced to the inside, Jayden felt unstoppable. He ran out into the yard, about fifty soldiers lined up and ready. Jayden had outfitted them all with top of the line equipment, the best armor, the best weaponry, and the best of basically anything else you could think of. He'd even fitted them all with a hand-made personal exosuit. Something of a combination between a mech suit and an exo-skeleton. Such a design was the best for avoiding casualties. Jayden clapped his hands together as he faced them all.

"Alright, so now normally this is the point where I deliver an inspirational speech before we run into battle..." he said, his voice loud enough to reach them all, "So I totally would do that if I was at all worried that we weren't going to lose." he flipped his hair of his shoulder. "Shit's gonna be easy, we're gonna drop every last one of those clawed bastards. I have no doubt that we can win. With that said, let's do this shit." he raised his fist in the air, and his squad of fifty did the same in response. He turned, the large doors opening. With the light pouring in, and the road laid out, they were ready. "Onwards to victory!" He charged out the door, and his squad followed. They charged up the road, their stamina seemingly endless. It was the same road that the ASIC battalion was coming from. Jayden readied his shields and swords, ready to start dropping monsters where they stood. As they ran up of the road, tanks began coming into view. Monsters marched in front of them, and dragons, three of them, circled overhead. Jayden charged ahead, cutting off his own hidden blades and jamming them down the barrels of the tanks, preventing them from firing. "Centurions! Charge!" Five heavily armored troopers came up. They charged forward, their shoulders down, effectively making a line of charging down monsters and sending tanks flying, or knocking them upside-down. He turned to another one of his new recruits. "Kupo!" the young man turned to him, two heavy machine guns in either of his arms. Jayden jabbed a thumb up at the center dragon. "Take care of that for me." Kupo nodded and put his machine guns on his belt for a second. He pulled out a grappling hook and launched it, grappling the drake's tail, pulling it out of the sky, separating it from the group so he could take it down. He called out to another one of his newbies. "Lance!" The boy turned to him in a similar manor, looking at him with curious green eyes, heavy armor and two crossbows, as well as a beam sword. Jayden nudged his head towards the other two dragons. "Let's do it up." Jayden spread his wings and lunged skywards at the dragon on the left. Lance spread mechanical wings and lunged right in a similar fashion. Jayden grappled the dragon's claws out of the way and began to slash at the back of its head. She dragon panicked and crashed to the ground. Noting a tank that was coming in for backup, Jayden skillfully dodged a tank round, grabbed the dragon, then threw it at the tank. The next round blew up in the dragon's face, and Jayden got out Zhen in 1400 Xeno form. He got down, bracing himself, and fired all three barrels, driving the dragon and the tank into oblivion. He jumped up, drop kicking Lance's dragon in the face. As the dragon went down, Jayden grabbed it by the neck and threw it towards lance. Lance thrusted forwards, spinning through the air, much like a hedgehog, spinning his plasma blade, slicing the dragon down the center. It burst into pixels shortly afterwards. They seemed to be winning. Suddenly, a Humvee pulled up, behind all the tanks. Jayden landed in front of it, preventing it from advancing. A man sprang out of the top of the Humvee, before letting it crash into Jayden. When the dust settled, Jayden was less than hurt, mostly unscathed, save a bit of a splash of burning oil on his left cheek. The man stood tall, CFW Judge behind him. Where had Judge come from...? Nonetheless, Buranka, Midori, Yami, and Violet separated themselves from the group and ran to his sides, weapons ready. The man cracked his knuckles. The man standing next to Judge had on a black and red ACU and had several guns strapped to his back and waist. He looked ready for anything. Jayden brushed his hair out of the way. "And who do I have the pleasure of speaking to and beating the crap out of afterwards?" he asked. The man chuckled and crossed his arms. He had brown hair and brown eyes, along with a medium, but muscular build.

"My name is CFW Garland." he said, "And it's nice to meet you too. I'm glad that I'm the one that was chosen to take down the biggest threat to the archive." Jayden raised an eyebrow.

"Was that a forth wall break?" he asked, "Cuz if so, I should take you out first, because only important characters can break the fourth wall, otherwise they don't know it exists, or don't know how. Nonetheless, the hell does that mean? 'Biggest threat to the archive?' What are you talking about?" Garland's cocky smile vanished.

"You're a plague to this archive, and you don't deserve a spot among us." he said coldly, "You're nothing but another dumb kid OC, nothing but a slave to their writer." Jayden snickered at first, then lost it entirely, and fell over laughing in the mud. As the rain beat down among them, Jayden continued to laugh. "Did I say something funny?" Garland asked, "I think you're proving my point, laughing because the author wants you to." Jayden pushed himself to his feet and delivered a powerful punch, sending Garland sprawling across the ground. Judge went to swing at him, but he'd already backed up.

"Garland, I think you've got it wrong." he said, spreading his hands, his palms to the sky. "I'm not a slave to my writer, I'm his partner. We're all his partners. I don't follow orders blindly, and I don't wait for him to tell me what to do." Jayden giggled a bit again, "Hell, if I waited for him we'd get like, one chapter once a month, if that much. You know how long he takes with all this shit." Garland got to his feet and wiped off his face, both blood and dirt alike. "Call me a dumb kid if you want to, but I just took out two dragons, that's three in one chapter." he said, a cocky smile of his own surfacing. "So if that's really what you think, well I'm sorry to tell you this man..." Jayden lowered his head, and looked back up, his eyes shining blood-red. The mascots fused their power to his. His hair-streak turned golden yellow, and his eye shortly followed. Finally, his wings burst with radiant light, their feathers turning from violet to gold. "...this dumb kid is about to kick your ass."

Judge swung his halberd, but Jayden caught it with his bare hand. He drew Fidelity and swung upwards, cutting the head off of the oversized weapon. He drew back his arm and threw the halberd blade at Judge, the blade smacking the CFW in the face, dazing him for a moment. Garland drew a gun and open fired on Jayden, but Jayden drew his second blade, Zhen taking his one-handed form, and began to almost dance, slicing bullets, cutting rounds, deflecting every last shot Garland had to fire. It wasn't long before Garland was out of ammo. Judge went to charge again, but Garland called him to a halt. Jayden sheathed both Fidelity and Zhen, waiting for Garland's move. Garland pulled out what looked to be a phone and hit a button. The remaining CFWs teleported in behind him. Jayden almost snarled a bit, but remained where he was. Garland's arms flew to the sides, as if taunting Jayden. "You're not as weak as I anticipated, but that doesn't matter." The CFWs became orbs, much like the mascots, and fused their powers into Garland. His hair darkened, his eyes turned red and he gained a dark aura, much in contrast to Jayden's shining golden aura. In place of his guns, his fists gained dark purple iron knuckles. He smiled at Jayden, his eyes empty. "Come Jayden, let us see who is truly the greater man!" he walked towards Jayden slowly. "I've waited for this day for quite a while. I cannot tell you how good it feels to finally be here." Jayden cut him off with another fist in his face. He now wore Zhen on his hands in gauntlets which weren't too different from Garland's knuckles.

"Let's get to the point." Jayden said, "This isn't about who's better. This is because you're threatening my home and the fate of the world. I'm here to fix that." Garland brought himself to stand.

"You know, there exists a prophecy about you. It tells tales of the hero who conquered the deity of sin, and would return to do so again when the world needed him." Jayden scoffed at this.

"I'm not a hero." he said, "I'm a guy defending what he believes to be right." Garland shook his head.

"I can sense that you are this world's finest warrior. I can sense no limit to your energy." he said, "Yet, I will defeat you. Let it be done!" Garland got into a wide stance and powered up, dark energy sending waves rippling through the ground. Jayden could feel how strong he was.

[One Punch Gear Rising - The Hero of Nature (One Punch Man x Metal Gear Rising) is the song that inspired this fight scene, so have a listen if you want to know what I was thinking on]

Garland ran at Jayden, his body forming a purple beam of energy as he ran. He threw a punch, and Jayden brought his left arm up without moving anything else. Garland's fist connected with his shield, coming to a dead stop. The impact sent a shockwave flying throughout the battlefield. All of the other units from both sides had fled. Garland threw another heavy punch, and then began to speed up, punch after devastating punch landing against Jayden's shield, yet Jayden didn't move. Garland wound up one last punch in the chain, slamming his fist to Jayden's shield, knocking him back. Jayden flew back a fair distance, then skidded to a stop before phasing backwards, leaving afterimages as he went, Garland chasing after him in his vile beam of violet light. He struck out at Jayden without stopping his momentum, but Jayden deflected him towards his right, then went left. Garland quickly corrected himself and rushed after Jayden again, this time looping around him and trying to strike from behind. Jayden brought his shield up again and blocked the punch, but took the knockback. Garland rushed to where Jayden would land, hit him again, then charged after him, hit him again, building up momentum. Jayden went flying, and Garland rushed around again, ready to deliver the final blow, energy spiking through him as he went to deliver the strike. He punched Jayden clear through a tree, but Jayden sprang off the trunk, back at Garland. They both wound up and struck at each other. They lashed out, an explosion resulting, and they landed, backs to one another. Garland was missing an arm now. He looked at Jayden, dumbfounded.

"Even though I continue to power up, my full strength unleashed, you can still keep up?" he half-asked. "This is impossible." he said it, but looking at Jayden, he didn't believe it. Jayden turned to him.

"Yeah," he said simply. "You're pretty strong too." Garland leapt back, his arm snapping back into existence, and drawing two guns.

"Death's Volley!" he unleashed a barrage of laser shots at Jayden, but he wasn't concerned. He drew Fidelity, and the power of the mascots, Fidelity, Zhen, and his own training at once built up together. He reflected on his previous statement where he'd said he'd felt unstoppable. He should have saved that, because now, he DEFINITELY felt unstoppable. Fidelity glowed with a bright light, and Jayden began swinging and spinning, slashing the laser shots into nothingness as they came. Garland rushed at him, throwing punches like a madman. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Jayden's own hands flew, catching each punch as it came it, throwing his hand aside before moving to catch the next punch. Jayden dodge to the side, landing four solid hit in of Garland before he dodged and knocked Jayden flying back. Jayden quickly recovered, then dodged backwards. Garland went straight at him, but Jayden jumped over. Garland flipped back and threw a punch which Jayden countered with his own. Jayden dropped to the floor, but dodged out of the way of Garland's downward strike. Garland charged him once more, and they collided in a burst of energy. They passed through each other and kept going slamming into one another again and again, separate energies clashing and blasting outwards against each other. Suddenly, Garland got the upper hand and knocked Jayden back, following up with a devastatingly powerful strike, sending him flying through several trees, breaking them down as he went. Jayden hit a particularly thick tree, then dodged upwards when Garland followed. He jumped from tree to tree, gaining altitude as he went. Garland flew upwards after him, throwing punches, slamming down trees as he went, but Jayden dodged every last one. Jayden reached the top of the forest and sprang straight up, spreading his six golden wings, and turning, then exchanging blurring, blinding speed strikes with Garland, punches, kicks, spins, splashes, shots, strikes, whatever one or the other could get in. Jayden managed to get a shot past Garland's defense and grabbed his collar, spinning him around, launching him back to the ground. Garland hit the ground with a mighty thud, and Jayden followed, driving Fidelity deep into the ground where Garland had been just a moment before. He drew Fidelity from the ground and slashed another several bullets in half with the blade before driving her blade forwards, cutting Garland's gun straight from his hand. Garland drew another weapon and leapt back once more, charging up energy and firing a gigantic beam of energy straight at Jayden. Jayden countered in kind, focusing his energy into a beam, the beam crashing together, their energies canceling each other out. They stood across from each other, ready to spring once more. Garland suddenly appeared behind Jayden and landed a solid punch on his jaw. Garland smiled.

"I don't think you understand. Even as we speak, I continue to grow in power. You are truly a worthy opponent, but the outcome is already clear to me," he said, "There is no way you can win. For you see-"

"Oh, shut up. Will you?" Jayden shot back. Garland seemed slightly taken aback by the comment. The punch hadn't actually moved him at all. The dust settled and Jayden stood, perfectly fine, ready for another round. "Keep your talk and cocky bullshit to yourself. Are you done?" Garland snarled and lunged.

"Not yet!" he powered up once more. "You're first!" He charged Jayden straight and punched him dead in the face, a beam erupting from his fist, sending Jayden flying. He followed up, slamming into Jayden again and again, he slammed Jayden towards the ground, hit the ground himself, then shot back upwards, driving his knee into Jayden's midsection and sending him flying towards the heavens.

[Cut the music]

Garland landed on the ground, his breathing heavy and ragged. "There we go." he said calmly, "Let's see him recover from that. He won't. It's impossible." The ground next to him exploded, sending Garland flying, and scorching the ground around the impact site. Garland scrambled to his feet and looked over, his eyes wide. Jayden slowly stepped over the brink of the crater.

"Hey!" he called to Garland. "I made it back."

[You're Going Down by Sick Puppies]

Garland got down, rage evident in his eyes. He took three wide steps, then rushed at Jayden once more, energy spiking, strikes flying. Jayden stood, his arms bent in a manner that covered as much as he could with his shields and braced himself at the same time. Garland flew in from every angle, landing precise and powerful strikes at a rate of over thirty strikes per second.

"HHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Garland struck out with every ounce of power he had, yet Jayden stood firm. He waited, biding his power, saving it into one strike, looking for an opening. Garland faltered. He was coming in from every angle, including directly from the front. He was moving in set patterns too. Jayden analyzed the pattern, and then struck, faster than Garland could process, right in the center of his chest. Garland was sent flying back and coughed up blood from the impact. He skidded to a stop. "Damn..." Jayden rushed up, leaving no opportunity for recovery. He delivered blazing punches at blistering speed, one landing after another. When he was done, Garland was suspended in the air from all the strikes, but all at once, his eyes turned colour negative and he landed across from Jayden. "I WILL defeat you!" Garland focused all of his energy, building up power for his final attack. All of my energy will be released in this final attack, blasting you, AND Planeptune to hell!" He drew back his arms.

"DEITY'S ROARING BEAM!" Garland fired the beam at Jayden and Planeptune, but Jayden retained his cool.

"If that's the case, I'll use my one of my final moves too." he crouched, building all of his strength into one point in that moment. "The killer move, to end the darkness' reign."

"Spirit's Rush!"

Jayden rushed at Garland, his body encased in energy, forming a beam as he went, blasting through Garland's final attack and breaking through his defenses. Jayden drilled through mountains, forests, crumbling buildings, as he drove the attack through.

[Cut Music]

When he finished, Garland was on his knees. Jayden approached. The CFWs had left him; Jayden couldn't sense their power anymore. Jayden noted that the tips of Garland's arms were beginning to dissolve into pixels. He'd seen it before, when the author had visited him in the other world. Garland didn't belong here, and the world was trying to correct him. Garland's ACU was stained with blood, and he seemed out of energy. Garland looked up, facing Jayden in the eye.

"Just make this quick, then." Garland said, "No point in drawing it out any further." Jayden shook his head.

"Not at all." he picked Garland up and cast a healing spell. "I would sooner destroy a stained glass window as an artist, than I would kill you here and now, Garland." Garland's breathing had returned to normal. He half-scoffed, half-chuckled.

"So much for that prophecy." he said. Jayden cocked his head sideways. "That was never a battle at all. Even now, you've got strength to spare. I never stood a chance..." Jayden shrugged.

"To hell with that, Garland. You've got people that miss you elsewhere. You've got a family and friends to get back to." Jayden ripped a hole through the fabric of reality. "Get going." Garland was stunned, but in the end, he smiled slightly.

"Thank you, Jayden." he said, "Best of luck to you." Jayden nodded.

"Same to you." Garland stepped through the tear and it closed behind him. With that, the mascots fused out of him and Jayden fell flat on his back. "OOOOOOOOOHHHH!" he shouted at the sky. "That was AWESOME!" Midori, Violet, and Buranka giggled a bit, while Yami merely shook her head.

"I'm just glad you won," she said, "It would have been embarrassing if you'd lost after that." Jayden looked at her.

"Yeah, no kidding." he sprang back to his feet, and the rest of his forty-six (Midori, Yami, Violet, and Buranka having been removed] squad members came out of hiding, cheering for him as they ran towards him. He raised both fists in the air. "WE ARE THE DEFENDERS OF PLANEPTUNE!" he yelled. They called back in a similar fashion. "Now then, back to the Basilicom to celebrate our victory today!" Everyone cheered and they all ran back home, racing each other on the way, happiness evident in their faces. When they came over the horizon, the rest of Planeptune's army and citizens began to cheer for them. When they got back to the Basilicom, Histoire already had a victory party ready for them.

"Never doubted you for a second, Jayden." she told him. He stood proudly, happy to have won such a crucial victory and such a hard fought battle. "Now then, I know we haven't had new recruits in a while, but some called ahead and asked me if they could join. There were four of them, and I figured we could use the help." Lance and Kupo came up behind Jayden, drinks in hand. Kupo slapped him on the back.

"That was some solid work today, guys. You have every right to be damn proud of that." Jayden told them.

"Damn straight." Kupo said, "Gotta say though, that's my first time fighting a dragon." Lance chuckled a bit.

"Not my first, probably not my last." he said casually. Jayden turned back to Histoire, and Lance turned off and went back to the party. Kupo, curious as ever, stayed behind with Jayden and Histoire.

"I think they should be arriving-" there was a knock at the door, "... soon." Histoire finished. She went over and opened the door, and Jayden four newest recruits stepped in. There was a guy, two girls, and a... something else... He didn't recognize the guy or the other thing, but he did indeed recognize the two girls. His mind was so conflicted at that moment, that he wasn't sure what to do. He saw the girl on the right, she made him so happy. It was Neptune, HIS Neptune. But then, he looked back at the girl on the left, and this is where his brain almost ceased to function from pure confusion.

It was Eryn.

* * *

 **Ladies and Gentlemen, that is how you confuse your audience. I just wrote a really lengthy end slate, and then my laptop blipped in power for whatever reasons and it got completely erased. I don't feel like writing it again, so I'm not going to. Nonetheless, lemme do my outro. I just wanted to let everyone know that the next chapter of Puppet master is coming, It's just taking a long time, because it's a long chapter.**

 **So then, I hope you all have a lovely evening, and, be it here or anywhere elsewhere, may we meet again upon another chapter. 24 OUT!**


	22. Sushi

**A/N: Well this is one day late, and probably several dollars short, but it's out. Prepare to meet some characters with some really confusing names. Also, before the question gets asked; No. This is not a crossover fic. I actually checked the rules and definitions, this still qualifies as Neptunia only. Mainly because I'm using a LOT of this as foreshadowing. So anyways, let's get on with the chapter before I start overexxagerating everything and delay us by another couple hundred words. This is...**

 _ **Paradox;Chapter 22: Sushi...**_

* * *

A young man, more of a boy really, short black hair, light brown eyes, broad shoulders, and a determined look on his face, sat at a table, mixing chemicals, several holo-panels hovering about, running simulations, and blinking red from failure. The date was May 22nd, 2016, the boy sat in a testing lab, which was legally closed for the day, but with a few lockpicks and determination stronger than steel, the law hadn't been able to stop him. His skin shone with sweat as he furiously worked, testing this, trying that, maybe this might work instead? No. He turned and tapped a few buttons on a holo-panel, the panel resuming its testing, except with slightly different settings. "How do I do this...?" he murmured to himself. His sister's face gently blinked through his head. She was only six, and no six year-old should have to go through this. She had been born, something had gone wrong. Mother had to be operated on in order to remove the baby, but they'd done something wrong. A blood transfusion had to be performed. The blood was infected with HIV, eventually leading to AIDS. He was the only one from his family who'd avoided it. Like a gift from the gods, he was biologically immune. He'd been working since then, desperate to save the sister he loved so much. He'd made cures before, but the disease managed to work around it in his simulations. He hadn't found one which he'd been able to get working. He was only two years older than she was, and he'd studied to the point where he'd gotten several degrees, breaking several world records, even earning doctorates, hell, the kid had a PhD. Suddenly, one of the panels blinked green. He looked up, almost unsure of whether or not to believe his eyes. He looked at what the panel had given him, and ran seven other tests and simulations with it. He was rewarded with a green blinking screen every time. He grabbed his head with both hands. "This is it..." He began the chemical mixing, making several versions of the cure, tested each one for variants and maximum efficiency, and then finalized the product. As the last part, he took a small knife and slit his palm slightly, splicing genes of his out of his blood and into the cure. He looked at it, then nodded slightly.

If only mother and father could see him now... They'd died three years ago, and he'd taken over, using his smarts and skill to bring in food for both him and his sister. He walked over to the window from which he'd entered, six meters up a wall, too high to jump. He grabbed his shoes, which he'd left under the window, and laced them on. They were sneakers, but not just any sneakers. He grabbed a small device and the vial from the table, saved the formula, and walked back over to the window, storing the items in his digital inventory, something he'd invented a while ago, capable of storing items as 1's and 0's instead of physical items. He bent at his knees, the lights along the lining of his sneakers beginning to glow. He snapped upwards, running up the wall, then grabbing the window ledge. He'd also made the sneakers. They enhanced his physical capabilities that included his legs which mainly included jumping and running. He'd been able to run across water with them once, running from the police after they'd found him somewhere he wasn't supposed to be. That happened to him a lot when procuring the resources he needed for this but, now it was all worth it. He ran across the city, probably breaking several records that he didn't care enough to think about. His mind was on one thing and one thing only. It was late; maybe ten o'clock at night, after visiting hours for the hospital, but that wasn't going to stop him either. He always went to visit her around this time. He got to the hospital, then ran up the wall again, grabbing the edge of a window ten floors up and letting himself in. He dropped into the room quietly, noting that this wasn't her room. Her room was down the hall, but this was the nearest window. He poked his head out into the hall, and then ran down the empty hall, picked the lock on the door, and let himself in once more. He walked over and sat on the edge of her hospital bed. She was awake, waiting for him. By now it was Twelve, and that meant it was May 23rd. He smiled at her.

"Happy Birthday, Konno," he said to her. She smiled weakly. "I got you a present, and something extra special." Her eyes brightened up and she sat up, her short black hair, similar to his, getting in her face. He brushed it out of the way and pulled the first thing out of his inventory. It was a kendo sword, one of the things that she had always wanted. She took the sword in her hand, looking at it, and admiring the fact that her name was carved into the side. She looked up at her brother.

"You know me so well, Onii-chan," she said, "Too bad I can't use it though…" she frowned, but then smiled back at him. "Tell me more about the game, Onii-chan." She implored, "The one you're making with the other four people. Tell me what you made in it today." He smiled.

"Well, I think I decided what we're going to do," he said, "We're going to be Blade Heroes." He told her, "A sword in one hand, and an attitude that tells the world that we're ready to go." She smiled, but sadly.

"Onii-chan… I have only a few weeks left…" she said weakly, "I won't be with you." He dug into his inventory.

"Hey, I said I got you something special, right?" he pulled out the vial and showed it to her, "Guess." She raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Actually, don't guess, I'll tell you." He pulled the top of the vial off and handed it to her. "Go ahead." She took the vial from his hand, trusting her brother enough to take it. She drank it, then looked at him as if asking what was going to happen. "Give it a moment, Konno." After a moment, her sickly pale complexion brightened back to its normal peachy hue. She opened her eyes all the way, her brown eyes brightening to the shade that his were. She felt lighter, free, just better in general.

She was cured.

When she realized what happened, she threw her arms around him, almost crying. "How did you figure it out?" she asked him, "How did you get it to work, Onii-chan?" Konno was absolutely ecstatic.

"I thought about it," he replied, "and I thought to myself, 'if this doesn't work, then I'll never get to play my game with Konno. I won't allow that to happen.' And like that, things started showing up positive. When the game is finally done, we can take as much time as we want to complete it, Konno." He smiled at her. "We can go home now, Konno." Konno's face brightened up into the widest smiled she could possibly give him. He scooped her up and set her on his back, piggy-back style. They snuck back out the door, down the hall, then hopped back out the window he'd come in. He dropped to the ground, Konno still on his back. He ran them around the city, giggling and talking, catching up on details that they were finally able to share now that it was just the two of them. When they got back to the house, he set her down, and the two of them entered together. "Let's get some sleep, Konno," he told her, "Tomorrow will be our first day back together as a family again." The two of them got ready for bed, and the boy found himself sitting in his room, entering code on his laptop for the game he'd been talking about with his sister. He was also programming his worker bots to make Konno a pair of shoes like his. Konno suddenly came into the room. She was wearing some of her old pajamas.

"Onii-chan?" she asked quietly, "Is it okay if I sleep next to you tonight? Just for tonight since we're back together again." He smiled at her.

"Sure, Konno." He said, "If it makes you happy, then sure, come here." She scooted into the bed next to him and nuzzled up against his side. He set aside his laptop and eased up, lying down to sleep.

* * *

Cutting forward six years to the same day, the boy shot the main developer an e-mail.

Mr. Kayaba,

I know we wanted to release the game this year, but could we wait and postpone the game by a few years? If we release it now, then we're going to be competing against all the other VR developers, but if we release in a few years, I've calculated five or ten to be the most efficient, then we'll come in after things have calmed down, and respark the efforts. Maybe that'll get people to remember our name, yeah?

From your volunteer dev, Sushi

Sushi was a name he'd used for almost everything, from usernames, to actual names, to nicknames and codes. Konno had started going by Yuuki, which was actually just their last name, but the name suited her. The real reason he wanted to postpone the game was something else entirely. He'd received a message from someone named Histoire. She was reaching out for help, people to fight in an army against the forces of evil or something like that. In other words, it was Sushi's and Yuuki's dream. A chance to be just like video game heroes in real life. A minute after he'd sent the e-mail, Mr. Kayaba had gotten back to him.

My dear friend and volunteer dev,

You are, without a doubt, one of the smartest people I know. It wouldn't be the first time you've saved us from economic failure, then lead us right to success! If waiting is what you think to be the best option, then we can wait as long as you like. I'll put the project on hold; e-mail me again if you get anything new, even if your friends want to join!

-Akihiko Kayaba

Yuuki came into the room, holding her practice sword. "Onii-chan!" she called to him, "Come! Teach me more about swordsplay!" Sushi smiled at this. It had become a daily thing, practicing swordsplay with her. Their skill scaled up exponentially every day. They'd become the best of the best in their area. They'd gone through tournaments, and, one after another, they'd beaten every last one. He only just barely managed to stay the slightest bit ahead of her, but only by a bit. They danced around the yard, their wooden blades clashing, swinging, and moving, and stepping here and there. After a while, Sushi eased back.

"Alright then, Yuuki." He said, "I think we're ready. Remember the message we got from Ms. Histoire? We're old enough for it now. You're twelve and I'm fourteen. Let's join them!" Yuuki's eyes practically sparkled.

"Yes!" she yelled, "Let's go join Ms. Histoire's army!" he held up one finger.

"Remember our swords?" he asked her. She nodded earnestly. "Now is the time. Let's put the blades to use." His own sword, Tadashidesu, was from an old tale. Their ancestor had used this blade to hold off an entire enemy army on a bridge. The blade's name was the Japanese translation for Righteous. Sushi normally just called his blade Tadashi, and Tadashi had a female soul, and provided him with enough strength to double his power when wielding her. Tadashi was a green, double-edged longsword that actually widened before fining into a point at the tip.

Yuuki drew her own blade, Chikara. With a male soul, and a name that was the Japanese term for strength, Chikara, or as Yuuki called him, Shi, was a light violet, double-edged long sword; one designed for being able to cut through whatever it met. The blade was dead straight until it fined into its point. Shi made it possible for Yuuki to take down any opponent she'd ever been faced with, and Sushi had never seen her lose with Shi equipped.

The duo contacted Histoire, a screen popping to life in front of them, the book-fairy appearing on the other end of the screen. "It's been so long!" Histoire exclaimed, "I'm glad to see you two are doing well! Have you decided to come and help me now?" the two nodded in response and Histoire smiled in response. "Very well! I will prepare the process for bringing you from your world to mine! Stay close to each other!" Sushi took Yuuki's hand, and smiled at her. She smiled back, knowing that they were going to start making a difference.

* * *

Seven months later...

* * *

So many thoughts rushed through Jayden's head that he wasn't sure which to asses first. He'd watched Eryn die. He remembered it like it had happened a few minutes ago, and that was considering that he'd actually watched it about the equivalent of six or seven hundred years ago. He'd reset the timeline so many damn times that he couldn't remember. Yet now, she was standing before him like nothing had happened. Then again, this was a different timeline than that one, so maybe this was a different version of Eryn? If so, he should cut his reaction where it was or play it for something else. But then again, Neptune was here, and she was from the same timeline he'd been in when Eryn had... happened. That was right, Switch had said that Eryn had never existed in the first place, right? Maybe she wasn't even there. It was possible that he was just imagining her like he had before. He needed answers, but didn't want to come off as peculiar. This all could be solved by one question, but he needed to work his way to it, he couldn't just cut the question in right then and there. Or actually, he could, theoretically, she would be the only one of this group he didn't know. He kept his eyes on her, his focus betraying him, giving him tunnel vision. She didn't move while his gaze was on her, she stood perfectly still. He narrowed his eyes, trying to determine whether or not she was actually there. Suddenly, he got tackled. It almost scared him how suddenly it happened, but when he realized what it was, he eased back up almost immediately. Neptune had her arms around him, squeezing him tightly. He smiled and hugged her back. Jayden noted that there were tears running down her face. He also noted that he wasn't as short compared to her as he used to be. When she separated from him, she noted it too.

"You look so different..." she said quietly, "Well... no... No you don't, but..." she looked at his clothes, then at his face. "No, I take it back again... I'm not sure... Something's different about you, you're... taller?" Jayden raised an eyebrow, but he knew it was true. Neptune was six foot five or six inches, and he was about as tall as she was now. He'd been several inches, maybe a full foot shorter before. "When did this happen? Or maybe I didn't notice it before?" Jayden shrugged, then though about what could have caused this change. His eyes slowly gravitated towards his halo, noting that, at some point or another, flying had become much easier.

"That's what it is." Jayden put simply, "That actually makes a bit too much sense, but is also rather offensive at the same time." Maxi raised an eyebrow, followed by Neptune, then... actually no, the metal guy couldn't raise an eyebrow, he didn't have those. Jayden unleashed his wings. "it's this." he explained, "I was too short before to let the wings have enough space to properly balance me while I was flying, I do have six after all. I guess you could say I sort of... grew into 'em?" Neptune sighed, then smiled again. "Also, it's been too long since I've been able to do this." Jayden folded up his wings, then leaned forward and pressed his lips to Neptune's. He didn't care that there were people watching, after so much time had passed, there wasn't a day that went by where he didn't want to do that again. When they separated, Neptune heaved a sigh of relief.

"Three seconds and I would've done it first." she said, "It's like you can read my mind." Jayden merely shrugged in response, then walked over to Maxi, unsure of how to respond.

"I'm not kissing you, too." Maxi quickly said, defusing the need for an introduction. Jayden doubled over laughing, straightening out and shaking Maxi's hand when he recovered.

"That's fine by me," Jayden responded, "But we'd probably be the first gay couple on this section of the archive, most people do lesbian instead." Maxi chuckled a bit.

"That's because there normally aren't enough male characters in this game." Maxi smirked as he said it, obviously tearing down what remained of the fourth wall in the process. Suddenly, he went serious. "So... silly question. Did the goddesses ever return?" Jayden raised an eyebrow, then realized what it meant that Maxi was here. He shook his head. Maxi slowly eased himself backwards and sat on one of the benches around the Basilicom's lobby. "So that's it then..." he said quietly, "They're... gone." Jayden walked over to him.

"What do you mean 'they're gone?' I sent them to you." Jayden said, his voice not angry, but rather concerned.

"I was afraid this had happened." Maxi said, the air slightly ominous at this. Kupo walked over to Maxi, and sat next to him. Maxi looked up at him and Kupo merely shook his head. "It happened one day," Maxi explained, "The goddesses couldn't remember much, and what they could remember was that something was wrong on this end and they had to get back to this world. I started working on a machine to do so... but we weren't alone. Arfoire, I'm not sure which version of here, had followed them." Jayden raised an eyebrow at this, trying to think about which Arfoire it could have been. Could it have been the one he's almost killed in the other timeline? Could it be the one from this timeline? Jayden became grimly serious. "Arfoire wouldn't let us rest," Maxi said, "she would periodically throw something at us, every week or so was something new. After a while, I realized the only way to escape was to finish the machine and send them back but... an attack happened in the middle of the transfer. I don't know where the goddesses went. It could be another timeline or some place in between... They're alive but... we'll never see them again." Jayden covered his mouth with his hands, then suddenly brightened up.

"Actually, that's probably a good thing." Jayden said with a bright smile, "Think about it, we were trying to save them from a bad ending before, now they can carve out their own destiny someplace new. What was their affinities with each other like?" Maxi looked down at the floor, painful memories, originally happy one, floating through his mind. He looked up at Jayden slowly.

"They're affinities were solid," Kupo told Jayden, "But... Maxi was solid with them too..." Jayden realized what he'd actually done. He'd given Maxi a whole bunch of new friends, but then they'd been taken away from him as soon as he'd gotten close to any of them. Jayden simply nodded once, a solid bob of the head.

"Ah." was all he said, and at this, Maxi stood from his spot and lost his cool.

"'Ah?' Really? That's all you can say?" Maxi asked, "You couldn't have helped me? You sent them there, you could've taken them back!" Jayden held up his hand and took a defensive step back.

"You would've sent them back prematurely, Maxi." Jayden said, everyone else in the room slowly getting more and more confused, "I wasn't done fixing the future yet." Maxi glared at him.

"You think the future is yours to play with, don't you?" Maxi asked him, his words dripping venom, "Because you can reset the timeline, you just have to fix everyone else's problems, is that it?"

Jayden stood his ground this time. "I like helping people," Jayden said, his voice flat, ready to swing either way, "is there a problem with that?" Maxi gritted his teeth. "Would you prefer that I left them to burn and rot in the graveyard, Maxi? I can do that if that's what you want." Jayden raised one hand, magic swirling around in it, "I can reset this timeline right fucking now if that's what you want." Maxi lunged and drove his golden spear through the center of the ball of magic, piercing through it, breaking Jayden's focus and negating the effects.

"Kupo! Help me!" Kupo, listening to his brother's command, drew one of his guns. Jayden had to think, how was he going to do this? He leapt back, grabbed both Maxi and Kupo on ink cables from his ring, then threw them out the front of the Basilicom. He then ducked under a swing from the metal guy, (Did Maxi say his name was Luno?) Jayden then turned and drop kicked Luno, attempting to get him out too, but to no avail, Luno was too heavy. Jayden got down.

"Spirit's Rush!"

Jayden caught Luno with his shoulder, bashing straight through him, the both of them winding up outside. At some point, Lance had gotten outside and was talking to Maxi and Kupo. When he saw Jayden, he drew his plasma blade. "Oh, fucking brilliant..." Jayden muttered, then spread his wings and rushed backwards, away from the four of them. "Not how I wanted to spend the rest of my day..." he almost hissed to himself. "But when life gives you lemons..." he backed up and sliced an anti-material rifle round in half, "...put the lemons in a blender, put that blender in another blender, then throw the whole apparatus back to it, and see if Life has any other shit to throw at you." Jayden pulled the pin on frag grenade and threw it over, then took cover behind a building, trying to see if he could run off the attention. Unfortunately, both Maxi and Luno had a lock on him, which meant that they could track him wherever he went. With those four close behind him, Jayden took off down the streets, using his wings to pushing himself to run faster. He had to lead them out of Planeptune before he got serious, otherwise they'd wind up bringing down buildings.

* * *

Two weeks prior...

* * *

Sushi and Yuuki had quickly risen through the ranks, being leaders of the army now. They'd brought down so many of ASIC's battalions, that they had been nicknamed the Victory Duo. Undefeated through over fifty battles, Yuuki had become one of the most powerful bladesfolk to walk around this world. It was almost a curious topic to see whether or not she would be able to match the strength of a CPU. They'd been preparing for a full frontal battle against ASIC, but the two of them weren't assigned to the fifty people going to fight that battle. Sushi eased back and rested Tadashi against the same wall he was leaning on. Yuuki came over and sat next to him, laying Shi next to Tadashi, and laying across Sushi's lap. Sushi smiled down at his sister.

"How'd today's training go, Yuuki?" he asked her.

"Pretty well, Onii-chan!" she said, her face vibrant with joy, "Jayden and Lance are so much fun to train with! I almost beat Jayden today, but he caught me off guard." she puffed out her cheeks in an adorable fashion. "I could have beat him." Sushi quietly laughed.

"I bet you could've. I wish I'd seen it." he replied, stroking Yuuki's hair. "You know, when we get back home, and I finish that game, that's going to be a piece of cake if we can handle this." Suddenly, Jayden came in, a hurried look on his face. Sushi raised an eyebrow, and Jayden beckoned them over. Sushi sprang upwards, slung Yuuki over his back, grabbed both their swords, handed Shi to Yuuki, and carried her into the main room of the Basilicom on his back. She hopped off once they got in, and Jayden waved them over to a table with a map on it. Jayden took a pencil and drew a circle around an area.

"So look... you two... you're the only two I trust to lead this, since... I don't know how long it's going to take... I can't lead it myself..." Jayden seemed to be making forty thousand decisions with every word that left his mouth.

"I'm honored, Chief." Sushi replied to him, "What are we handling?" The boy seraph was clearly distressed.

"So... there's a cave here, where I marked this map. Here's the Basilicom... There's something at the bottom of the cave. I think it could help us defeat ASIC once and for all." Jayden told him, "I need you two, and I'm giving you two additional people in your squad for this, to go find it. It will be... extremely dangerous, and it could go wrong at any moment. You... may not live through this, and it could take as long as a year to get to the bottom and back depending on whether or not you can use teleport crystals in the cave. If you get the item, and it's what we think it is, we might be able to shorten this war by as much as several years."

"I'll do it, but Yuuki, you're staying behind." Sushi replied, a pained expression on his face. His sister turned to him, her face full of confusion. "If it can shorten the war, I'll risk my live, but I'm not having my younger sister do the same." Yuuki grabbed Sushi by the collar and glared him in the eye.

"I could say the same thing for you, Onii-chan." Yuuki hissed, "If Sushi is going, so am I. We're a package deal." Sushi sighed.

"Fine, but we're taking three other people in our group, not two." Sushi said with a groan. Jayden smiled.

"Glad that I can count on you." Jayden replied, "I'll give you three people to work with. When can you head out?" Sushi looked at Yuuki, then back at Jayden.

"You set the times, Chief." Sushi cracked his knuckles.

"Yeah, Chief," Yuuki continued, "You give orders, we execute them, as well as any monsters in our way." Jayden chuckled quietly. He drew a few more points on the map before rolling it up and handing it to Yuuki. "Thanks, Chief!" The two turned and walked out of the room. Yuuki looked over at her brother who seemed to be in a cold sweat over something. She was concerned about him upon seeing this, noting that he normally didn't act this way. She took his hand in hers, and he looked over at her suddenly, an almost surprised expression on his face. Yuuki gave him a reassuring smile, then inquired as to what was making him so worried. "What's on your mind, Onii-chan?"

"I can't say for sure," Sushi replied, "In all honesty, I wasn't expecting that to come out of my mouth. If anything, I'd be more worried about the other people in the squad then I would be about you." A slight shiver went down his spine. Something was telling him that this was a less than brilliant idea, but he wasn't about to be the one to say it. He was easily the strongest unit Jayden had in his army, and furthermore, Sushi could do cave explorations. When they'd teleported here, Yuuki and he had wound up in a cave somehow on accident due to a mistake on Histoire's part. As he and Yuuki walked, Sushi contemplated what would make him feel such a way. It was easily one of the most unnerving things he'd felt. At the same time, he couldn't afford to let it slow him down. Yuuki squeezed his hand a bit. When he turned to her, she went up on her tip-toes and kissed his cheek.

"Don't worry, Onii-chan." she said, giving him the biggest smile he'd ever seen on her, "I'll protect you. I know you'll protect me too." Sushi smiled and lightly stroked her hair.

"Thanks, Yuuki." Sushi said, returning her smile, "I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

Two weeks later...

* * *

Jayden skidded to a stop, as Luno wound up another punch. Jayden drew his second shield and bashed Luno's arm out of the way, then jumped up and drop kicked Luno right in his face. Luno stumbled back, but didn't fall over. Of course. Nothing knocked this fucker over. Jayden then quickly turned and deflected a sawblade with left shield, then another with his right. He grabbed the third sawblade, ignoring the fact that it slashed his hand when he caught it. He then turned and threw it back at Maxi, catching yet another sawblade, then throwing that one at Kupo. Maxi managed to dodge the blade, but Kupo wasn't quite so lucky. His gun was caught in the path of the blade, slicing one of his two machine guns in two. He had other guns, but that would at least reduce the bullets per second that he'd have to deflect. He then drew Fidelity and Zhen, now dual wielding shields and swords. Violet, Yami, Burranka, and Midori were elsewhere, so he couldn't use his finale booster, but at the same time, that didn't really concern him that much. He was able to hold off Kupo and Lance at the same time, and Luno was often too slow to propose much of a threat to him, but the real problem, was Maxi. Jayden couldn't get close enough to score a solid hit on Maxi, and Maxi had a balance of range and Melee, keeping a golden spear for close combat, and flinging sawblades at a distance. Furthermore, Fidelity seemed reluctant to strike out at Maxi, so Jayden had to remember to use the other hand to attack if he got close enough. It was probably because Maxi had forged her that lead to her disobedience in that moment, but Jayden found that forgivable. He didn't want to be fighting this fight either. The only one he had no qualms with hitting was Luno, and even then, Jayden could unleash hell on Luno, and the guy would probably only fall over. Maybe not even that. He needed to drop Kupo and Lance so that he didn't have to worry about them. Jayden quickly turned and blocked several crystal bolts from Lance's twin crossbows, then grabbed Kupo, who'd attempted to stab him from behind, and threw him at Lance, effectively disabling the both of them for a short while. He turned around, ready to take out Maxi, only to get another punch in the face by Luno. Luno's hand had been encased in some sort of energy this time, and it took out half of Jayden's first health bar, and threw him like a ragdoll. Jayden turned over in mid-air and skidded to a stop again. Suddenly, Luno was there, and Jayden found himself flying through the air again. He'd now dropped to a quarter of his health left, and Luno wasn't done. As Jayden flew, Luno launched into the air after Jayden, and smashed him to the ground, draining the rest of his health almost entirely. Jayden was saved by his own annoying resilience, leaving him with about one sixteenth of a hit point left. He forced himself to his feet and looked at his health bar. It was already going back up, arriving at one tenth full shortly after he looked at it. He turned to Luno, who was charging for another attack. When Luno came up and was in range, Jayden ducked under his fist and jumped up, using his wings to slam himself into Luno's back, knocking Luno over into his face. Jayden then activated Spirit's Rush again, and drilling Luno a ways into the ground. Jayden noted that he'd hardly scratched Luno's health, but at least it would keep Luno busy for a while with that, Jayden's left arm was removed by a flying sawblade. He lurched forwards in pain, managing not to scream by a fraction of his will. He stood straight up, Zhen on the ground, remaining in his left hand. Jayden put away his right shield and gripped Fidelity slightly tighter. When the next blade came in, instead of deflecting it, he sliced it clean in half. Fidelity didn't seem at all reluctant anymore, pulsing with a feeling almost similar to anger. Jayden sheathed Fidelity for a moment, and picked up his other arm, and held it in place where it was supposed to be. Maxi stopped out of sheer confusion. As Jayden held it there, he could feel it slowly resealing itself. When it was sturdy enough to stay on its own, Jayden grabbed his shoulder, where it had been cut, and pulsed fire through his hands and fingertips. He could feel it burning, but he knew it was helping. It was a trick he'd learned, cauterizing himself through the use of magic. When he pulled his hand away, his arm was perfectly fine. His health bar had even gone back up to nearly full. Maxi gritted his teeth again, and Jayden got down, ready to charge the kid in response. The two went at each other, and were about to collide, when they were both sent flying. When Jayden went to get up, a blade was at his throat. It wasn't Maxi's spear blade, but rather one that he was also familiar with, but wasn't expecting. A boy with blonde, almost golden yellow, short hair, dressed in silver armor, as well as having a dark indigo cape and golden laurel shoulder-pads, with leg-guards on his bottom half, and metal sabatons, stood over him, a regal, red-handled, long, silver blade with a golden guard and counterweight at his throat. Jayden could recognize the blade, as well as the young man holding it.

"Get up. Here," the boy said to Jayden, offering him a hand. "I'll handle Maxi, Jayden. Just do me a favor and make sure that you cover me in case this goes sour." Jayden nodded, gripping Fidelity, then grabbing the boy's hand, pulling himself up and meeting the boy's icy and fiery eyes face to face. The boy looked him dead in the eyes. "Didn't notice that the last time I saw you," the boy said, "And I thought I weird eyes." Jayden sighed. "Right, let's take care of this." The boy turned and walked over to Maxi, helping him up. Jayden remained across the field where he was. "Hey, Maxi." he said, "Where'd you get the spear?" he asked.

"The hell do you mean, Oliver?" Maxi asked him, "I got the spear from a monster drop, just like any of my other equipment." Oliver raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think you should use that thing, Max. It's getting inside your head." Oliver replied to him, "It's trying to control you, Maxi. Don't let it control you." Suddenly, Maxi rushed down Oliver, his spear out. Oliver was able to jump back to delay it, but he was still open. It provided Jayden just enough time to rush forward and deflect the spear, knocking it into the air. "Jayden! Boost!" Jayden turned and cupped his hands, catching Oliver's jump and launching him up at the spear. Oliver turned in mid-air and skillfully cut the golden lance into three pieces. When the spear broke, it burst into pixels, and Maxi's face went blank, and he fell to the floor, his eyes rolled back in his head. Jayden looked at him, and went to pick him up and help, but Oliver stopped him. "Just stand back and watch." he insisted. Maxi began to convulse on the floor, and eventually a shadow left his body and formed up above him, a physical figure, menacing in appearance, but Jayden could tell it was appearing much more threatening than it actually was. Jayden Held out one hand, light concentrating in his palm, and bursting outwards, slicing the dark figure in half. The darkness dissipated, and Maxi struggled to his feet. Even after all of that, Jayden was the first to help, supporting Maxi's weight, giving him a shoulder to lean on. Oliver was quickly on his other side, the two holding Maxi up between them. Luno walked over, Kupo and Lance slung over either of his shoulders. "Good work, buddy." Oliver told him, "Let's bring them inside. Histoire can do the rest."

After a brief interlude of healing spells and explanations, everyone was back to full health and back on good terms. "So... what exactly just happened?" Maxi asked, "I'm afraid to say that I was blacked-out for most of it." Oliver sighed.

"That's fine, we're missing some details, but we're a Neptunia Fic, so we're allowed to do that." Jayden replied to him, "But here's the main gist of it: You got that spear off a possessed monster, the possession switched to you, making you over-excessively angry, then controlling you entirely when it got to it, Luno joined you, Lance joined you, Kupo joined you, then we got into a fight because you were being possessed, then Oliver showed up the fuck out of nowhere, then we broke the spear and it shattered into a demon, then we killed the demon, and then we got back here and got you healed. Thanks, Mom." Jayden smiled at Histoire with this last bit. She smiled back.

"No problem," Histoire replied as she closed another book. "Healing spells are the easiest spells to cast in my opinion."

"Anyway..." Oliver said, refocusing the conversation, "ASIC's a problem, but so is something else. You've got a signal coming from a cave near here. It's not a distress signal, but it's someone who could probably use some help. They're alive, and surprisingly well, but it's WAY down in that cave, and I'm not sure how long it'll take us to get there."

"Cant' take us too long," Jayden said, "Think about it. With the three of us, we can smash through that cave at record speed. That, and I actually know where the signal's coming from. A few weeks ago, I sent a small squad in there to investigate it. If they're sending distress signals, then we'd do well to keep our guard about us." Maxi got to his feet and grabbed his capsule spear back from Kupo.

"Take care, brother." Kupo told Maxi, putting his hand on Maxi's shoulder.

"Jayden, you take the frontal position since you're the tank, Oliver you can take any position you want since... that's what you do... and I'll take a position right behind Jayden. I can cover him with blades from behind. If I have to drop some puppets, then dropping them further up would be a better idea." Maxi strategized the three of them into a team, "Let's only take the three of us. Taking anyone else is increasing risk further than is necessary." Oliver nodded.

"Alright," Jayden said clapping his hands together, "You, Me, Oliver, and a cave. What could go wrong? Ladies and Gentlemen...

Let's go save a Sushi roll."

* * *

 **So now we're at the end of a chapter again. I haven't gotten any comments since chapter... seventeen...? Yeah seventeen now, so there's nothing to say here other than, I hope to have the next chapter of Puppet Master out by the end of this month. If not, then someone smack me, I'm procrastinating too much. Jayden will smack me, if not, then Oliver or Maxi will. I dunno. Someone.**

 **Anyone...?**

 **I am so alone...**

 **Except not really, because I have the voices in my head!**

 **Let's just do this intro before I embarrass myself further.**

 **So then, I hope you all have a lovely evening, and, be it here or anywhere elsewhere, may we meet again upon another chapter. 24 OUT!**


	23. Playing with P25000s

**A/N: So here's the next chapter, out on time. I was going to upload Puppet Master, then realized it wasn't done. Oops. Anyway, I'm just going to say, and that is if ANYONE actually reads these A/Ns, the comment section is there for a reason. Post a comment and tell me what you thought! Even if it isn't long, or isn't particularly nice, any and all feedback is helpful! PMing me also works, I usually get back to PMs faster than I do to comments. That's why my end-slates have been so short! I usually respond to comments in them! Leave a comment/review! Please! Thank You! Now to the Chapter! This is...**

 ** _HDN: Paradox; Chapter 23_ : _Playing with P2500s_.**

* * *

Jayden took a moment to reflect on this predicament. Here he was, in a room, no visible way out, except the rope all the way up there. He couldn't fly up there, his wings were silenced by the room. He couldn't jump that high, not without Cavort's assistance at least, and he hadn't heard from them in forever. He couldn't run up these walls, he wasn't nearly that nimble. Oliver and Maxi were in a separate, adjacent room, and Sushi and Yuuki were, likewise, in another room. Oh, and Famitsu was over there in the corner of the same room he was in. Did he forget to mention that his body was currently impaled on a giant wooden spike? That was a thing too.

"Well this day could've gone better," Jayden looked at the camera, "Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine, I just gotta get my ass off this thing." Jayden whirled sideways, breaking the spike, narrowly avoiding spearing himself on the other spikes around the room, then landing on the floor next to Famitsu. The spike went all the way through him "Oooooooooh! That was a bad one..." He stood up straight, investigating the giant wooden pike through his midsection. "Wow, couldn't even afford metal spikes, huh?" He pulled the pike out and tossed it aside. "Maybe it just goes with the dungeon theme. Whatever." he looked at the camera again, "So then, this really puts a damper on things. Zhen's on the floor over there, he's deactivated, Fidelity's all the way up there..."Jayden looked at the scraps of metal scattered around the floor as he began to formulate a plan. "I know you're asking, so let's get this out of the way. How did I get here? Try some timely flashbacks. Let's start with five minutes."

* * *

 _Five minutes ago_

* * *

Jayden, Oliver, Maxi, Sushi, and Yuuki had just descended another floor. Jayden had lost count of how many floors that made by this point. They'd charged down any number of floors just to get to Yuuki and Sushi, and now they were trying to find out where Famitsu, Dengekiko, and Jeb had gotten off to. Was that a thing they'd ever brought up? Apparently Jeb was Maxi's apprentice, but he'd joined Jayden's army when the three of them had teleported over. Kupo and Jeb had wound up with Jayden, while Maxi had wound up in the same world and timeline as Neptune. Jayden jumped up and drop kicked a monster, sending it flying across the cavern. There, from the ceiling, were their three missing members, hanging in cages made out of... jungle wood maybe? This entire floor was overgrown, which made no sense because the only light came from glowing crystals instead of the sun. Oliver leap-frogged over Jayden and slashed another monster to pieces. Maxi chucked half a dozen sawblades into a crowd, and Sushi masterfully slashed the remaining monsters in two. He and Yuuki were in a sort of tower formation as they ran across the cavern floor, Sushi carrying Yuuki on his back. As they attacked an enemy, Sushi would keep them out of the line of fire, while both of them would attack with their swords. Sushi leapt back, narrowly avoiding an explosion. Explosion? From what? Jayden looked over to see a monstrous Venus fly-trap looking thing come out the trees. For whatever reason, he though it looked a bit like a computer mouse, with the large rounded head being attached to a wiry vine as it snaked its way forth. Ignoring that, Jayden lunged forward with an overhead strike, cleaving the monster's face in two. This didn't keep it down for long, as the monster just sort of continued anyway, slamming Jayden with its head, launching him back, skidding across the floor. Maxi approached next and brought down his spear into the creature's head, and Oliver approached from behind and cut the vine supporting the creature. With a final cry, the monstrous plant went down. Jayden sprang back to his feet and jumped up onto one of the cages, the one that had Famitsu in it. She was attacking the inside of the cage with her shrimp. Jayden didn't understand the weapon, but just decided to go with it. Turning Zhen into a two-handed battle-axe, he slashed the beam connecting the cage to the ceiling, and he and Famitsu toppled to the floor in a heap. He picked himself up, the girl now unconscious on top of him. He slung her over his back and went to start on the next cage when the floor caved in. As Jayden fell, time seemed to slow down. He could see spikes at the bottom waiting for them. Famitsu would be safe, but he was going to fall right onto those spikes. Time seemed to come to a full stop as Jayden contemplated what was about to happen.

"Shit..." Jayden said quietly, "...did I leave the sink in my bathroom running? Oh well, Mom will probably turn it off." He turned to the camera, "You know where this goes. Was that enough of an explanation? Probably not. Let's try another five minutes."

* * *

 _Five minutes ago_

* * *

As the trio of Oliver, Maxi, and Jayden bounded down another set of stairs, they found the squad of five, being Sushi, Yuuki, Famitsu, Dengekiko, and Jeb. For an exciting three seconds, it felt like everything was going to be fine.

Then the shit hit the fan.

Jayden narrowly dodged out of the way of a falling boulder crashing to the floor, throwing Maxi and Oliver out of the way as well. He grabbed the two of them with Ink cables from his ring, and pulled them back as he ran towards the previous squad. Indicating that they should GTFOBTHCD, or otherwise, Get The Fuck Out Before The House Came Down, Sushi grabbed Yuuki, putting her on his back in a sort of piggy-back tower formation, and took a position next to Jayden as they charged down the cavern, the others forming up behind them. Utilizing his ability to provide buffs to the party, Maxi provided a boost to their running speed and they ran out down to the next floor with the previous one crashing in behind them. On this floor, the layout was open. One monster stood in the center of the room, a dragon looking thing. Maxi insisted that they stay back. Flinging several small wooden boxes at the dragon, the boxes unfolded into Mini-Maxi puppets in the air. The puppets deployed bows from their arms and began to shoot sawblades from the bows on their arms, bringing the dragon's health down slowly.

"They'll keep his attention and soak up the damage!" Maxi called, "Being it down while it's distracted!" Maxi drew his capsule spear, Oliver his sword, and Jayden his dual shields. Jayden jumped off of one of the puppet's heads and slammed his shield into the dragon's face, presumable breaking its... (Nose? Snout? Snout. Dragons don't have noses, they have snouts.) snout, causing it to reel back in confusion. With its stomach exposed, Maxi and Oliver attacked together, a combined thrusting attack that drove the dragon's health down to 45%. Famitsu leapt over the both of them, whacking the dragon over the head with a golden coloured lobster. She called it a shrimp, but it was obviously a lobster. Dengekiko came in behind her, attacking with her pen staff, unleashing a bolt of electricity along the way. Jeb came in for the grand finale, swinging his katana twice around, rotating 720 degrees in midair, activating a special as he cut through the dragon.

 **"Blind-Speed Slice!"**

Jeb slashed clear through the dragon, winding up on the other side and sheathing his blade as the dragon fell to the floor and burst into pixels. The group finally took a moment to catch their breath, resting for a while after their intense struggle. Jayden picked himself up.

"Well that was one hell of a reintroduction..." Jayden brushed himself off as he said this, "Can't say that this was the welcome wagon I was expecting, but you know, at least it wasn't zombies." Oliver and Maxi simultaneously gave him a look, "Right, but think about it. It is exactly 100% impossible that we would be attacked by zombies. Especially not right now." As Jayden finished saying it, a chill went down his spine, and he quickly turned around to elbow a rotting corpse in the face as it tried to take a bite out of him. "Really?" he said quietly.

"You just had to jinx it, didn't you?" Maxi asked, "Just can't leave well enough alone."

"For the record, both Maxi saw that coming a mile away." Oliver said. Jayden helped Famitsu to her feet, and Jeb next. Dengekiko was already up by the time Jeb was up. Jayden brandished both Zhen and Fidelity and ran forward, tearing into the crowd, sending zombies flying with each swipe, ending with a powerful downwards stab, launching zombies, and doing some impressive AoE damage.

"Oh zombies," Jayden said, "What a magnificent trope of video-gaming and visual media you are." Jayden looked at the camera, "Cuz I know this ain't the first time you've seen zombies in a video game. If it is, well get your eyes checked. This is a fan-fiction not a videogame. Unless someone turned it into a videogame?" Jayden shook his head, then looked back at the camera again. "Just kidding, we don't have the budget for that. Then again, maybe we do, because this is the POV camera that I keep looking at to talk to you. Have I ever told you how awesome you are for reading and supporting this fan-fiction? Trust me, I could go on for hours abou-" Jayden was cut off by a scream as Dengekiko, Famitsu, and Jeb were dragged to a lower floor by vines. Jayden sort of stared at this phenomenon before giving his opinion, "Well shit. That's a problem." he looked back at the camera one more time, "We'll finish this discussion later when I'm not playing out the part of the fourth-wall breaking, stunningly-handsome, badassery-motherfucker, main protagonist. Do I sound narcissistic? Probably. Don't worry; I'm not trying to be. It's in the script. Anyway, I've got things to kill and friends to save. Laterz." Jayden took off across the cavern floor, down the stairs to the next floor. "Onwards to victory!" Jayden peeked his head back into the room for just a moment.

"Still not satisfied with explanation? Need another five minutes?" Jayden took a moment as if listening for a response, "Okay, I got it. ANOTHA ONE!"

* * *

 _Five Minutes Ago_

* * *

Jayden stood ready at the mouth of the cave. He looked at the camera. "Hey, this is basically right after where we left off last chapter. If you need me to go any further back, maybe you should try reading that one." Jayden looked at Oliver, then at Maxi. "Ready, guys?" he asked.

"More ready than I really need to be." Oliver replied, "There are people that need help. We don't have time not to be ready."

"I agree," Maxi said with a nod. "Let's get this done. Have you got the drill Jayden?" Jayden nodded and handed Maxi the device. "Good. Let's go." Maxi slung the drill over his back, and the three enter the cave, weapons drawn. The first floor was cleared out, and there was enough space to set up the drill. Maxi deployed it, and the three of them hopped on. As the drill revved up, it began to spin and break the ground. Gaining full speed, the drill pierced the floor of the cave and they descended, floor after floor, for three minutes or so. After that, the drill was out of power. They hopped off, and Jayden picked the drill up.

"Never know if we might find more fuel for this later. All we need is a few solid crystals of energy, right?" Jayden said, slinging the drill over his shoulder. Oliver nodded.

"Here, it's not enough to break the floor around here, but it's enough to do some damage under close encounters." Oliver handed him some energy crystals.

"Why thank you, good sir." Right as Jayden slotted the gems into the gun, a monstrous beat burst through the floor, aiming for Jayden's head, ready to snap it clean off. Instead, Jayden revved up the drill again, and smashed it down the creature's throat and pushed it sideways. The creature burrowed off into the floor again, and Jayden heard an explosion several moments later. "Well then... That takes care of that."

"Holy shit, dude." Maxi muttered, "That was one hell of a reaction time." They had a look around. Jayden walked over to a very particular tree, one that had some very intriguing metal fruit. He plucked one off and showed it to Maxi. "Holy shit, does that even follow the laws of physics? Or even anything in general?" The fruit Jayden had pulled off was a bullet. Jayden stripped the entire tree bare, multiple bullets of all calibers and gauges and sizes, and all types of guns included. After that, he looked at the tree, wondering if there was some way he could take it with him. Maxi walked up behind him and crouched next to the tree. He cut a small nick into the base of the tree, and beams extended from his eyes, scanning the cut in the tree. He then stood back up, cut the tree from the ground entirely, and the tree decomposed into pixels, and the pixels retreated into Maxi's left glove. "There, I've copied the make-up of the tree, and I grabbed the tree. Let's get going, Sushi and the others should be close by now." The three headed down the stairs, readying their weapons again. Jayden peeked his head up one last time before they left.

"By this point, it's just us charging down stairs and stuff until we find them. You get the point. Let's go back to where we were, shall we?" Jayden said, and then snapped his fingers.

* * *

 _Fifteen Minutes Forward..._

* * *

Jayden started picking up the scraps of metal and dissembling some of the bullets he'd picked up earlier. After a few minutes, he had a fully working hand-gun. It was a more advanced model of a P250, more like a P2500. Jayden grabbed a few more scraps and made himself another, saving the extra scraps for other things. He took a deep breath, then looked upwards at the rope suspended from the roof of the cavern. He aimed upwards fired straight at the rope, the coil breaking, and the full length falling to the floor. First Jayden grabbed Zhen and strapped Zhen to his belt, then he grabbed Famitsu, slung her over his back, and scaled the rope back to the cavern's main cavity. Jayden kept Famitsu on his back, not wanting to put her down, just in case something else crazy happened. He shot down the ropes on the other two rooms with Sushi and Yuuki, and Oliver and Maxi. Jayden heaved a sigh of relief when they came back to the top. Jayden looked at the camera again.

"See, now this is why you study everything possible, kids." Jayden said, "Just think what could've happened if I hadn't paid attention in school?" He shook his head, "You know what? Let's just advance the plot." Jayden turned and checked on the girl passed out on his back. "This is going to raise some interesting questions, but I think the real problems outweigh this one. Matter of fact, I don't think the script questions this, that works for me." Famitsu began to stir on his back. "Oh hey, there we go." Jayden scooped her off his back, switching to a bridal style carry. "Good morning there, sleepy head. How was your nap?" He asked.

"Ugh..." Famitsu recovered from his arms, and Jayden set her down so she could stand on her own. "I think that could have gone better, but at least I can get a good cover story out of this." Maxi sort of snickered, and Sushi shook his head.

"I think there are more pressing things to be worrying about than the news at the moment, Famitsu." Dengekiko said, disapprovingly, "Though don't get me wrong, when we're done here, my story is going to trash yours." The two glared at each other until Jayden broke them up.

"You literally JUST said that there are more pressing things to worry about, come one, before something else happens." Jayden checked the map from Histoire, and then checked the data scanner from Maxi. "Maxi, I know you gave me this so it could help me, but what does any of this mean?" Maxi walked over behind him and had a look at the data scanners proximity display. Oliver cocked his head to the side, unable to read it either.

"Okay, we're about three quarters of the way through this cave," Maxi said, "One more floor and we'll be EXACTLY three-quarters in." Jayden nodded approvingly, and Jeb brandished his katana.

"Well, now that Maxi-Sensei's here, I have both a reason to continue, and someone to watch my back." Jeb said, slinging his arm around Maxi's shoulder. "How about you, Sushi? You've been leading us this far, though I guess Chief here is gonna take over?" Jeb pointed at Jayden when he said this. Jayden waved his hands in front of himself.

"Maxi's been leading us this far," he said, "Just because I've got a pair of magic swords and six wings doesn't automatically make me the leader."

"To be fair, we've all been doing most of our own thing, instructing each other thus far." Oliver noted, "It might benefit us to have an actual leader at the head of our team. Eight people working without coordination will quickly become a hot mess, trust me, I know." Sushi raised an eyebrow.

"Well, maybe you should lead the group, Oliver." Yuuki suggested, "Jayden said that you've lead entire armies before." Oliver looked at Jayden, and Jayden threw up his hands in surrender.

"Oh, so you've heard about me?" Oliver asked without taking his eyes off of Jayden, "Then I assume you've heard about Maxi, too?" Yuuki nodded, "Wonderful. While it's true that I've lead armies, those people were all people who understood exactly what was needed, when it was needed, and how to do exactly that. Furthermore, all of those people were practically trained together. They all fit a certain slot. I hardly had to do much at all. My job was just telling people where to be and what to do. If it ever comes to that, then I'll lead this. This sort of situation requires a bit more dexterity on the front of commanding. I imagine Sushi might do a bit better than I can if he's gotten you this far."

"If I'm being elected, then I will do my best to steer us in the right direction." Sushi said with a nod, "Just forgive me if I'm not perfect." Oliver nodded and drew his blade once more.

"Let's get moving," Maxi suggested, "Like Jayden said, before something else happens." Sushi nodded and waved a hand, gesturing for them to follow. They descended the stairs to the next floor, and Sushi peeked his head out into the room. In the center of the room was a giant capsule with a light pulsing in the middle. It looked important, but at the same time, it looked like...

"Every part of this screams 'trap' to me." Jeb noted, "I've set up similar traps myself. That's probably bait."

"I guess we won't know until we find out," Jayden said, "I've got the highest defense, so if it is a trap, I've got the best chance of surviving whatever comes out if it is."

"Alright, you got out ahead, I'll follow behind. When it's all clear, I'll tell everyone else to come out, okay?" Sushi suggested, receiving confirmation from the rest of his group, "Great. Come on, Chief. Let's roll." Jayden approached with his dual pistols drawn instead of his swords. Zhen was still recharging, and Fidelity needed to recharge as well. Sushi had four different sword strapped to his back, two Katanas, Tadashi, and a black and purple Greatsword. He everything sheathed for the moment being, but Jayden could tell he was ready to draw any of his four blades if it came down to it. Suddenly, Sushi held out one hand, and stopped Jayden where he was. "There." he pointed to the floor, and Jayden could see the outline of a circle around the capsule in the middle of the room. "That's the tripwire. Whatever that is in that capsule could really help us if we could get to it, but at the same time, we don't know what the trap is. Do you want to go for it?"

"Your call," Jayden replied, "I've got enough bullets to fend off an army, not to mention when my blades recharge. Also not to mention that I'm sure you're more than capable."

Sushi nodded slowly, "Alright, in that case, we do this, just you and I. let's not involve the others, just in case this goes badly." Jayden nodded, "Spring it whenever you're ready." Jayden aimed his left pistol and shot just on the inside of the circle. The room turned red, and the capsule was sealed off by a magic barrier. The stairs to and from the floor were also sealed off, keeping the other six outside. Yuuki gasped and banged on the barrier with her fists, even taking a swipe at it with Shi, but she couldn't break it. Jayden and Sushi got together, back to back, Jayden with his pistols drawn, Sushi ready to draw whatever suited the occasion. Zombies began to pour in from the walls and the ceiling. They were the same zombies from before.

"Oh great," Jayden said dully, "You know what I thought this day really needed? More FUCKING ZOMBIES!" Jayden open fired, dropping zombies as they came in, and Sushi drew his two Katanas and began cutting down zombies as they approached.

Jayden flipped backwards and popped the head off of three more zombies, then turned and fired his pistols in both directions, spinning in a circle, spreading out his fire so that he might take out more zombies at once. Sushi was performing his own spinning move, slashing through zombies as he flew around the room like a helicopter with Katanas for rotary blades, spinning around the room, beheading and slashing zombies as if that's what he was born to do. Eventually the two came back to back again, the number of zombies about halved. Jayden gestured Sushi over, and the two grouped up, Sushi jumping up on top of Jayden's shoulders, and the two continued like that, Sushi slashing at enemies that got too close, and Jayden firing at zombies that were too far away to cut down. In a minute or two, when the number of zombies had gone down to the double digits, maybe thirty or forty, rather than the triple or quadruple figures, like five hundred or three thousand, like there had been before, Jayden speculated that there must have been about ninety or so zombies left, maybe a few more for the ones that he couldn't currently see.

"What say we finish this off quickly?" Jayden suggested. Sushi agreed. "Alright, play my backup for me." Sushi leapt into the air and surveyed from the roof of the cavern as Jayden readied himself. Zombies began to approach slowly at first, coming in from his left and right. Jayden got down and reloaded both his guns. As the first one came in from the left, he fire two bullets from one of his guns, the first catching the zombies neck, the second blowing off its head. He then crouched under a swing from a zombie on his right, planted a bullet in its chest, then shot it in the face, knocking it to the floor. Several zombies came in from his left now, and Jayden open fired on both pistols, blowing of the head of the first zombie, clipping the next zombie's arm, then shooting it through the eye, shooting the next zombie in the chest, then in the face, the bullet piercing through the zombie's head and catching the head of the zombie behind it. He then jumped forward and kicked the next zombie back, knocking it into the ones behind it, knocking them all down. He then turned at fired both guns at the same time, planting two bullets at once into the zombie behind him. He then jumped back, avoiding two advancing zombies on the other side, and blew off their heads with well-placed shots as well. Spinning back the other way, Jayden blasted three more zombies, then dodged the other way, blasting off a zombie's head with a blast of energy. He recovered back onto his feet, and blasted off one more zombie's head with another similar blast. He charged a more powerful barrage, and waited until another zombie was almost right on top of him. He unleashed one shot into the zombie's face, removing that issue, and jumping back, avoiding the zombie's corpse from falling onto him. Similarly to a machine gun, Jayden held out one hand and started disposing of zombies on his left, then turned and took out another on his left. Jayden then grabbed one zombie, head-butted it, then threw it to the ground and jumped over it, firing several magic bolts onto another zombie. He landed in front of the staggering zombie, drew his twin pistols again, and blew its head off. Jayden turned and popped the head off a zombie, then threw the head at another zombie that had an assault rifle. Wait, the zombie had an assault rifle? Why did the zombie-? "Plot convenience." Jayden said, then lurched forward and ripped the zombie's arms off. "I'll take this!" He grabbed the assault rifle and started firing at whatever approached him. When the rifle was out of ammo, he threw it at the nearest available zombie, then turned and fired with his dual pistols into several zombies behind him. When his pistols ran out of ammo, he back-flipped to dodge an attack, while reloading at the same time, picked up the assault rifle, reloaded it, and then began firing onto the crowd of zombies again. After a moment, he realized that it was too quiet. Most of the other zombies were standing back and staring, as if waiting for something.

"My turn!" Sushi yelled out as he dropped from the ceiling and stabbed the approaching camo-cloaked zombie with both Katanas. Jayden realized at that moment that this was what the zombies had been waiting for. Jayden jumped up and clung to the ceiling of the cavern now, playing back-up for Sushi. Sushi tossed one zombie up in the air, slashed another, then slashed the first one if two with a well-placed scissor-cut. A larger, not necessarily bigger, but fatter zombie approached from behind, and Sushi turned, sheathed his Katanas, and flipped backwards, then drew his Greatsword in a spin and cut the fat zombie in two. A zombie approached from his right and let loose a deafening scream, but Sushi just threw his Greatsword at it, then drew his Katanas again and cut two more zombies to pieces. When a larger, bulkier zombie approached, he brandished both Katanas, then drew Tadashi as well, slashing at the zombie so blindingly quick that he was using all three swords at once. He finished it off with a clear cut, dashing through the zombie while striking out with all three blades at once. He held one of the Katanas in his teeth on the other side. He then activated a skill and slashed another zombie in two with a flaming blade. Sushi then sheathed Tadashi, picked his Greatsword back up, and dodged out of the way of another zombie. He then jumped up, kicked a zombie in the face, then grabbed it and threw it over behind him, knocking down several more zombies at once. "WHY ARE THERE SO MANY ZOMBIES?!" He jumped back and cut a group of zombies down with a spin, then spun again upon hitting the ground and threw a Katana at another zombie. He pulled the Katana from the zombie's chest, then spun in midair and slashed the next few zombies into three pieces with a strike of both Katanas at once. Sushi took a moment to note that the last few zombies left around the room were mainly bigger, stronger looking zombies, along with one that was probably the leader. Jayden landed from the ceiling with a shockwave, sending multiple zombies flying.

"My blades are recharged!" Jayden yelled out, then went on a killing spree around the room, hacking apart whatever got in his way. Sushi turned and drew all four of his swords at once, then went absolutely crazy. It became impossible to see how he was moving, and he somehow was using all four blades at once, including the larger Greatsword in the mix. When it got down the leader, he jumped up, sheathing everything except Tadashi, and Jayden rushed in underneath him. Sushi landed right in the perfect spot, planting his feet in Jayden's palms, and Jayden threw Sushi skywards. Sushi came back down with a thunderous downward stab, planting his sword in the leader zombie's forehead. Sushi back-flipped off the leader's forehead, then watched it fall to the floor. Jayden seemed to be eyeing up the leader zombie's left hand which was basically a mini-gun. Without another though, Jayden cut the gun off the zombie's hand and reconfigured it a bit so that he could use it himself. Sushi doubled over as the magical barriers on both the room and the capsule disappeared. As Jayden went to check the capsule, Sushi stopped him.

"Dude… We just fought a ton of zombies." Sushi managed between labored breathes, "Let's save that for next chapter, I think it'll work better that way."

Jayden merely shrugged, "Works for me, I need a rest too." Jayden looked at the camera, "Guess that's it then. See you next weekend, guys!"

* * *

 **Got nothing to say in this end-slate, so lemme just do the outro.**

 **So then, I hope you all have a lovely and wonderful evening, and, be it here or anywhere elsewhere, may we meet again upon another chapter. 24 out!**


	24. And now difference?

**A/n: This is a bit later than I wanted to upload it, so fuck the intro, this is...**

 ** _Paradox, Chapter 24: And now for something completely different..._**

* * *

Jayden took a moment, observing the capsule before them, before turning to the rest of the group. "So then…" the boy seraph said, "How… the fuck do we get this open?" he received a sigh from the blonde boy-warrior.

"Are you shitting me?" Oliver asked, his tone indicating that he wasn't thrilled, "You can take out a fucking horde of zombies, but opening a metal container is beyond you?"

Maxi shook his head, "Um, no," he said, "I don't think that's what Jayden meant. If he was incapable of opening containers, then I don't think he'd have gotten this far. What we really need to know is how to open this without breaking what's inside."

Before anyone could act further, Sushi drew Tadashi and slashed off the top of the capsule, making Famitsu jump slightly, and Dengekiko to straight up fall to the floor in surprise. Having a look at what came out, the pulsing light burst outwards, surrounding the group. The light was charged with power, energizing the eight heroes, restoring their health to full, and giving them some sort of new energy.

"Wat da fak?" Jeb stuttered. "What is…?" he moved his hand about, balling and un-balling a fist in front of his face. "Something is wrong about this."

Jayden curiously looked at the violet light dancing about in his palm. "Yeah, I'll fucking say." Maxi said, his tone flat and unamused. When Jayden looked over to see the reason, it quickly became evident why he was so upset. "Yeah, Einstein, lookit this." Maxi pointed up at a large metal quill through his face. "I'll show you not fucking normal." Yuuki flinched.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Oliver asked him. Maxi shook his head in response, the metal spike moving about with his head. Jayden held one hand over his mouth, trying to hide the laugh that stemmed from the angry ginger unicorn that was his friend at the moment. "You look like you got into a fight with an angry roman javelin thrower and it didn't go very well for you."

"Don't listen to him, Ollie. I think it suits you." Jayden said. Maxi punched him in the face, not at all holding back his strength, but the moment he did so, something very interesting happened. The metal spike through his face folded up and the metal reappeared on Maxi's fist in the instant that he threw the punch. Jayden went flying back into the wall, recovering a second later and walking back over with an interesting grin on his face. "Dude, you just knocked me the fuck out. WTF was that?" The angry ginger inspected his hand, the metal gauntlet-like structure that had appeared on his fist. He looked up.

"I find it hard to believe that I'm the only one that got powers from that." Maxi commented, "Check what's going on. Something very interesting just happened. "Maxi curled, and uncurled his hand to see how well it would respond to his movements, noting that it responded very much like his own hand would, yet felt almost like a liquid against his hand. He knew the feeling, it was the same feeling one got from the pleasure of holding a good weapon, and it was a good one to have.

Dengekiko looked at her hands, noting small pulses of electricity running through her fingertips. It was a new sensation to her, but not entirely. She wiggled her fingers, and the small arcs of lightning danced across her palms and fingers. "I guess I've got lightning or something, then?" the blonde reporter half-asked, half-said. "I wonder if this kind of thing does anything else. Also, how did it dictate what kind of element it gave us?"

Famitsu was too busy dancing and throwing small water bolts everywhere to notice the question. Most likely due to the fact that she used a fucking lobster as a weapon, she'd wound up with water as her element, and she was having a bit too much fun with it. As she danced around the room, it almost looked like she was skating as she glided across the floor of the cavern with ease, water springing up through the floor to support and move her around the room. "This is SO COOL!" she practically squealed.

Jeb looked down at his palms. "What did I get?" he whirled his arms in a windmill fashion, hoping that he'd activate something by chance. Much to his joy, pillars of wind formed on either side of him, and with a swinging motion of his hands he launched the small tornadoes forwards, tearing up the field in front of him. "That's pretty neat…" he muttered under his breath, then threw another few blades of wind around.

Sushi stared at his hands, but didn't notice any immediate changes or surges in energy. "Shit… figures I'd be the one to get shortchanged…" His sister patted him on the back.

"Don't worry, Onii-chan," Yuuki said reassuringly, "I don't think I got anything either." As she said this, her hand pulsed with energy, and the two looked at it together. Yuuki waved her hand around, resulting in dark clouds following it about as she waved it. "Oh, nevermind then." Sushi sighed as Yuuki waved her hand around, throwing shadow bolts all over the cavern. Before long, she was dancing around the cavern with Famitsu, the two of them creating quite a light show with flying bolts of shadows and water flying together. Sushi watched his sister dance about, wanting to dance with her, but knowing that he wouldn't be able to keep up. He sighed again and sat down, waiting for everyone else to go over their powers before they continued.

Oliver was swinging his blade around, trying to see if he could figure out what he'd gotten. Right as he was about to give up, he gave a swing that made him lurch forwards through the space in front of him. He took a moment to ponder this. "What element is that?" He mused, "Speed maybe? That's not really an element… or maybe it's not just elements? Whatever. It's not like I was really in need of an upgrade." He put away his blade and waited for Jayden and the others.

Jayden was dancing and channeling a flying ball of violet light, which he wasn't sure exactly what it was. He threw his hands about a bit, throwing the balls of light around the cavern, illuminating the dark space until the light fizzled out against the wall. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but it felt both warm and cold at the same time, like some sort of combination between light and dark at the same time. "Hey, Oliver, have you ever seen this before?" Jayden asked him, holding out a concentrated orb of the stuff. "What…?" Oliver shook his head. "Huh." Jayden dispersed the light and looked around, waiting for Famitsu and Yuuki, and now Dengekiko who had joined the other two in dancing around and lighting up the cavern with various beautiful lights. Maxi was also having a bit of fun. He was using his metal power to launch saw blades all over the cavern, almost six times as fast as he'd been able to before. As he did so, one flew over in Sushi's general direction.

It wasn't going to hit him, but all the same, Sushi stared at it as it flew through the air. In a moment, Sushi had a sword drawn and slashed the sawblade in half like it was nothing. He looked first at the shattered blade, then at the sword in his hand. Where had this come from? This sword was unlike any of the ones he'd brought with him. It was long, flat bladed, and double-edged. For a moment, he tried to think about why he was holding a sword that he hadn't brought, then decided that he didn't care enough to work it out in his mind. After a moment or two, the sword disappeared from his hand in a flash of light. Sushi thought about this, looked at the camera, then looked back at his hand which the sword had disappeared from. "What." He didn't bother phrasing it as a question, he was too confused. "Hm..." Sushi, in experimentation, made a motion like he was throwing a knife at the wall. Halfway through said motion, a no-dachi appeared in his hand and flew straight at the wall, sticking into the side of the cavern, then disappearing a while later. It was at this point that Sushi realized that the rest of the group was staring. "I guess I did get powers then." he said casually, "Swords. Not an element, but I suppose I've never been one to play by the rules anyway." Brushing the shattered metal pieces of the sawblade off his sleeves, he walked towards the stairs on the room. Yuuki, trusting her brother, followed behind him, slowly followed by the others without a word.

When they got to the bottom of the stairs, the room was laid out wide and open, almost like an arena. "Well this is a boss room if I've ever seen one." Jayden noted, his eyes dull. He looked at the camera. "Because 24 doesn't know how to do things subtly. He spells subtlety with explosions."

"That aside, we have to go through here anyway, right?" Jeb answered, "There's no way around it. This cave is too linear."

"Look." Maxi pointed at a large pile of stones in the middle of the room. "How much are we willing to bet that those stones come alive and become the boss? Or some part of the boss?" Oliver merely nodded.

"Well, might as well get it over with." Sushi said as he walked towards the center of the room, "Forward unto dawn and shit." The pile of stones rumbled and green energy formed in the center. Sushi drew two Greatswords, wielding either of them with just one hand, and readied himself. The others readied themselves as well as the energy formed a giant green golem, the rocks making the armor.

"Called it." Maxi said. The golem raised its arms and roared, shaking the cavern.

"This thing is probably tougher than most anything else we've faced this far!" Oliver called to them, "Get ready for one hell of a fight!" Sushi charged his swords with energy as Yuuki came over to him. The two got ready for a team attack and-!

The ceiling of the cavern came crashing down, burying the golem underneath, pixels bursting outwards seconds later, indicating that it was dead. Sushi sheathed his swords and sighed. "Well that was disappointing." the sword-master huffed.

"Whatever, we'll get the next one," Yuuki said, patting him on the back reassuringly. Standing on top of the rocks was none other than Neptune. Jayden's Neptune that is. She smiled and hopped off the pile of rubble, walking over to her partner.

"Sorry about stealing your show," Neptune said, flipping her long, gorgeous, light-violet hair over her shoulder, "But I got reintroduced two chapters ago, only to be pushed to the side again. Also, we can't have the readers forgetting that this is a Neptunia fic. Dengekiko and Famitsu are the only two here that vaguely indicate anything of the sort. Also, this team has more boys than girls, and that's bullshit."

"Well, if anything, I'm glad to see you." Jayden said, kissing her on the cheek, "The help is well appreciated, and I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say so.

"Good to hear," Neptune responded, "Because I wasn't planning on leaving until we'd gotten the item at the bottom." Sushi shrugged.

"Well, many hands make light work. We've got sixteen altogether now!" Famitsu chirped, "Plus, adventures are much more fun with friends!"

"Shut up, Famitsu," Dengekiko hissed, "You're just happy that you can include the CPU of Planeptune in your story when we get back." The girl in question puffed out her cheeks and frowned at Dengekiko.

"Hey... I'm trying to have fun, Dengekiko!" Famitsu huffed back, "Forget the story! You can have it! I just wanna enjoy this adventure!" Dengekiko's eyes went wide. So did most everyone else's. The shock was absolutely evident in reaction to Famitsu not caring, even in the slightest, about the story that came out of the end of this. Oliver, not caring much about the feud going on between the two reporter girls, took a moment to observe Neptune. He noted that she wore two sheathed Cyber-Katanas on either side of her waist, as well as two rifles and two handguns, the rifles across her back and the handguns strapped to her thighs. He'd never seen this variation of Neptune before, granted he hadn't really observed this world much before coming to it, but he'd seen (what he thought was) all of her variations. That is to say, all of them except this one. Jayden and Maxi turned and headed for the stairs, Sushi and Yuuki close behind.

"One floor down, on to the next." Oliver said, following behind. About five minutes later, they were still walking down stairs. "How far down are we now?" Oliver asked, turning to the ginger for the response.

"We're actually almost there." Maxi said, "To be honest I expected more floors, but I guess the designer wanted you to think that so you'd get intimidated and leave or something? Makes sense to me."

"And you only." Jayden said shaking his head.

"Well no, I get it, sort of." Neptune said, "Here." she pulled out a small notebook which she referred to as her Nep-Note. "This sort of thing has actually been done before where you trick the intended audiences into thinking you have more than you actually do. It's like mirror rooms, Jay. Similar concept, different execution." Jayden nodded slowly.

"I still don't get it." Yuuki sighed.

"Not really important," Sushi noted, waving a hand around dismissively.

"Okay, hold on, my scanner indicates that there is indeed on last room before we come to the last item room." Maxi said, "And this last room is supposed to hold the biggest challenge yet... because we have to enter the room alone. It may group us up depending on certain factors, but otherwise we're going through one last challenge alone." The group slowly nodded, confirming that they understood. "This should be interesting." The stairs let out into a wide room, very similar to the last one. When Maxi looked around, he realized that he was alone. That was fair enough, it said he was going to be alone. Maxi walked around the room, noting nothing out of the ordinary, then headed towards the exit on the other side. "Oh right," Maxi said, "Everything I fear most has already happened. Lucky me." As he reached the exit, the room went dark.

"If you continue, there's more to come. Everything that you fear most has already happened you say, but think about it. It could happen again." Maxi recognized the voice and turned around and looked at the center of the room. It was Blanc standing there talking to him, "It's not just about me and you Maxi." she told him, "It's about everyone else. Do you really want all of them to die too?"

"Oh cut the crap." Maxi retaliated, "You can't fool me with that. I literally just said that this was the biggest challenge before the last room. Do you really think I'm not going to realize that this whole thing is an illusion? We're still on Puppet Master Chapter 8 in terms of uploading, hell 8 hasn't even come out yet, it's only like halfway done. The readers aren't going to understand this." Blanc took a moment to comprehend this.

"You always were the smart one." she said, then faded into a shadow. Maxi turned and exited the room into another similar room. He could sense that his friends were still behind him, so he waited, hoping that they would overcome their challenges.

* * *

Jayden was on his own, but to be honest, he wasn't all that scared. He'd gone most of this fiction fighting on his own anyway. As he neared the center of the room, everything went dark around him. He drew both swords and all four shields, both arming and armoring himself at the same time.

"I don't suppose you still think you can get the happiest ending do you?" a voice, his own voice, asked him from the dark. "Do you still think you can solve everything, just because you're the son of a goddess?" Jayden raised an eyebrow. "Ignore that last part then. Do you really think that your power changes anything? If anything, you made everything worse. You can't even reset the timeline. If you do, you'll just end up killing yourself. The worse the timeline would have ended, the more it hurts for you, right? Think about it. The goddesses and candidates are all gone." the voice taunted him, "All that's left is a sad little fallen angel, trying to listen to the instructions of his far away mother. You don't think she really cares about you, do you? She's just stringing you along so she can use you later."

Jayden began to giggle slightly, then all out laugh, "See, and that's where you're wrong." Jayden thought about all the happy memories he'd shared with Histoire, and all the times she'd healed him or picked him up when he'd fallen down. He thought about every time she'd given him a hug or a kiss, and told him that she loved him. He thought about every last time that she'd helped him when he needed it. And he thought about every time he'd called her 'mother,' and she'd turned to him with a smile on her face. "I don't need you to tell me what I've done wrong. I can see it, and I'm mature enough to recognize it. I may have messed up this future pretty bad, but at least I'm still trying to fix it." The voice grumbled in the dark.

"This changes nothing." the voice boomed, "Your biggest enemy is not the deity of sin, nor is it ASIC. Your biggest enemy is the monster you will become. A small figure became visible in the center of the room. It was himself, two colour negative scars running up and down his face. He'd seen them before. "Also, have you forgotten those you've left behind already?" Another figure became visible behind his own sitting figure in the room. It was a girl, one he recognized.

"So we meet again, then." Jayden said to the girl, "I knew there was something more to you. What do you want from me? Why do you keep taunting me?" The girl he spoke to was none other than Eryn. "I didn't forget about you in chapter 21. Why were you there? Do you even have a reason? I'd be more than happy to have you back, but there are questions that need answers." Eryn shook her head slightly. "Of course, you're just an illusion... but still. The fact that you're here proves something to me." Magic symbols began to form around his sitting figure as the parallel shadow Jayden slowly stood, Eryn disappearing behind him. Shadow Jayden, which Jayden decided to call Shade, brought down a sword, a shadowy version of Zhen. Jayden caught the blade with an open hand and slashed his shadow version across its torso with a wide, powerful attack from Fidelity's glowing blade. Shade dissolved into the ground, returning to Jayden's shadow. "I get it, you're calling me weak," he said, "But that's not going to stop me." Jayden sheathed his blade and continued towards the exit, meeting Maxi and Oliver on the other side. "That was eventful."

"Not for me," Oliver noted, "There's nothing left that I fear. So the room was just empty for me." Jayden chuckled.

"Lucky bastard," Maxi said, "Mine was just talking."

"I just had to slash myself across the chest." Jayden said, "You know, a dark... shadowy version of myself that is." Famitsu and Dengekiko emerged a moment later.

"That was just a boss fight for us," Famitsu noted.

"An easy one at that," Dengekiko added, "Must be because we've been minor characters for the most part. They weren't even sure who we were." Maxi doubled over laughing, and Oliver had to hide a smirk. Jayden laughed slightly, then looked behind them to see Jeb emerging.

"I think it was broken for me." Jeb said, "I mean I got there, Maxi was about to fight me, then he just kind of dissolved."

"Wait, your biggest fear is fighting me?" Maxi asked his apprentice.

"Well the first time I tried it you literally fucking shattered my sword with your teeth." Jeb replied with a shrug, "How would that not be a concern of mine?" Maxi seemed to agree.

"Fair point," the ginger responded. "So now we're just waiting on... who?" The cave exploded behind them and Neptune emerged, sheathing a Katana and slinging a rifle back across her back. "Right, Nep."

"Sorry that took so long," Neptune said, brushing her hair out of her face, "They decided that they were going to make me fight Jayden." Jayden started laughing.

"What's so funny about that?" Jeb asked, "That's basically what happened for me, did yours malfunction too?" Neptune shook her head.

"Nope," the violet CPU answered simply, "I fought him."

"Yeah, I can imagine how that went." Jayden said, still sort of laughing.

"Why do you find this so comedic?" Oliver inquired, "You find it so funny that it's almost as if there's some sort of punchline I missed."

Jayden looked him straight in the eye, "The short answer is that I would not stand a chance against Nep. Even if she didn't transform, there's no way I'd win that." Oliver raised an eyebrow. "Neptune is much more powerful than any of her variations that you've met so far, I can personally guarantee that."

Maxi, now intrigued, inquired further, "Just how strong is she?"

"Maxi, think about it." Jayden said, "We needed a fucking diamond drill to get through the floor to the point where we started from, and we didn't even go all the way to Sushi and them. Neptune joined us several floors later and burst through the floor with nothing." Maxi's eyes went wide.

"To be truthful, I did NOT think about that." Oliver noted, shock evident on his face, "With that kind of power, you could shatter a skyscraper by barely moving. You'd be so strong that-" Neptune rose on finger to her lips.

"Let's not get into details, shall we?" the purple goddess suggested, "We're practically there already. Let's just get there." The group descended into the final room, and suddenly, Dengekiko, Jeb, and Famitsu were teleported out, leaving Yuuki, Sushi, Maxi, Oliver, Jayden, and Neptune in the cave together. Jayden quickly contacted the others, and confirmed that they'd just been teleported outside the cave. Confirming that they already had the item it was decided that the three should just head home.

"You know, it's only just now that I realize that this final trial that we just passed was really anti-climactic." Jayden said suddenly. The remaining group turned to him, confused looks on their faces, "Most of us had loopholes or challenges that weren't actually suited to stop us. That whole setup is usually used right before an epic battle that almost always kills someone, yet we got through that mostly unscathed." Oliver took a moment to contemplate this.

"Should we really ask questions about that?" Sushi replied, "Methinks we should just take it and go. Think about it this way: Pleasing everyone is impossible and you'll only waste your time doing so, while on the other hand, pissing off everyone is easy and is fun as hell." The black-haired Seraph nodded slowly.

"You raise a fair point." Jayden responded. And with that out of the way, they headed off down the stairs. Coming to the bottom, there was a large stone table in the center with a glowing orb sitting on top of it. "Well, there's the item." Jayden said, "I wonder what it is?" He went to go pick up the orb. Expecting it to turn into an item, he was thoroughly confused when it didn't. "WTF IS IT?!" he started violently shaking the orb until something came out of it. Two small teardrop shaped gems, one orange and one black, fell from the orb, and then the orb went back to doing nothing. Jayden went to pick up the gems, but the games picked up themselves and handed themselves to Sushi.

Sushi had a look at them for a moment before taking them from the air. "Thanks I guess?" Sushi said to the gems as they slowly turned to light in his hands and changed shape. When they were done changing shape, he had two fairies circling his head. He held out one hand and the black-lit fairy landed on his hand. She was a small girl, tanned and pretty with long green hair put up in drills on the sides of her head. The smiled up at Sushi.

"Hey!" the girl said to him, "Nice to meet you!" Sushi couldn't help but smile at her, "My name's Tenshi. What about you?" The other girl landed on his palm. Jayden glared at the fairy, seemingly recognizing her, but kept to himself.

"I am Sushi." he told the fairy, "I'm a volunteer soldier for the Defenders of Planeptune." The orange fairy smiled.

"Cool," Tenshi said, "Well, something made us activate when you came by, so we're bound to you now. My orange counterpart is Eryn." Tenshi gestured to the orange-lit fairy next to her, "We're your guardian companions, and we'll help you in whatever way we can, alright?" Sushi looked over at Yuuki, then back at the fairies.

"Okay, sure," the swords master replied, "Any help is welcome I guess."

"Good to hear!" Eryn said, "I look forward to working with you!" Jayden frowned at this as he watched the fairy float up and sit on Sushi's head. When she looked in Jayden's direction, she gave him a look that promised answers at a later time, but for the time being, Jayden got the point and played along. "That orb can be used for some powerful magic. If you came all the way down here to get it, then there must be something really bad happening."

Jayden got an idea, "Let's try getting this back to Mom. I bet she knows what to do." Activating a recall crystal, Jayden took Neptune's hand and teleported them back to the Basilicom, followed quickly by the others. Jayden walked inside and laid the orb on the counter. When Histoire saw it, her eyes went wide. "So where are we going with this?" he asked his Book-Fairy mother.

"Well, Jayden..." Histoire said, taking the orb in both hands. "We're going to another Hyperdimension."

* * *

 **So apparently I forgot to respond to a comment last time, and my real life equivalent of Jayden had to tell me it was there.**

 **A guest said, (This is Paraphrasing): "** I like what you did with Yuuki! Sword Art Online is my Favorite Anime. **"  
Response: Oh thank you, I was wondering how that was going to go. I was really afraid that people were going to get upset with me for doing what I did. Also, THANK YOU FOR COMMENTING!**

 **Anyway, that's just about it. Leave a comment to tell me what you thought, all feedback is helpful.  
That's all I've got for you this time, I hope you all have a lovely, wonderful evening, and, be it here, or anywhere elsewhere, may we meet again upon another chapter. I think I just did my own outro wrong, but that's okay. I'm tired.**


	25. Brother

**A/N: I want everyone to be as confused as possible on this one, so I'm gonna keep the intro short. This is not the upload for this weekend, that will come tomorrow or later today. Also, I saw the new comment, I will respond to it in the actual upload. Have fun trying to wrap your head around this.**

Leave a comment with questions and thoughts, Here's **  
 _Paradox, Chapter 25: Brother..._**

* * *

The girl's eye flitted open as she took in her surroundings. There was a weight on her chest making it hard to breath. She pushed the weight off, rubble falling around her as she did so. The girl released a powerful pulse of energy, blasting all of the debris off herself, and clearing the surrounding area. Having a look around, details started to piece together in her mind about what had happened. She ran one hand through her long light brown hair/ dirty blonde hair, and put the other hand on her hip. She pulled a shard of glass from the ground and inspected her face in it. She looked perfectly well, almost as if she hadn't been covered in rubble for several years. The most notable thing about her reflection was her eyes. The colours of the rainbow passed as she stared at the shard of glass, the most notable colour being the red. Almost neon in vibrancy, her eyes seemed to dance as the red shifted across her eyes before the other colours slid in over it. Inspecting the ground around her yielded a tattered photo. She picked it up and had a look at it. In the picture was herself and another boy with the same rainbow waving eyes she had. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she inspected the photo further. The boy had on a white hoodie and black sweatpants with a blue undershirt and black and red sneakers. She had on the same thing she was wearing now: a white and black hoodie dress with black sweatpants and black and red sneakers. It was very much a female version of what the boy in the picture was wearing. Another tear rolled down her cheek as she looked at his face.

"Brother . . ." she said to the picture quietly, "I miss you." there were words on the back when she flipped it over. The sides were scorched, but some of the text was still readable...

'Jayden and Jordan, best Bro and Sis foreve-' the last letter was burned off. The rest was unreadable. The girl, Jordan, put the picture in her pocket and looked up with a determined face. She picked a wood axe and an industrial hammer off the ground before walking off through the ruined city.

"I will find you." Jordan said to Jayden, even though he wasn't there, "I will find you, brother. Even if I have to search until the end of time."

She bit back tears before the last part: "I love you."


	26. Anger Resolution and New Dimensions

**A/n: Well this is one day late... Crap! Anyway, before we start I'd just like to say a huge thank you to one of my most motivating friends and followers,** **AIYF Productions** **, for being with me from Chapter 1 and up and through where we are today. I always get excited when I see that I have a new Review/comment, and I always get even more excited when I see it's from you.** ** _Thank you_** **. For you, this is...**

 ** _Paradox, Chapter 26:_** ** _Anger_**

* * *

All throughout the Basilicom, preparations were being made. Histoire and Jayden, along with several others were getting ready to make a jump to another Hyperdimension, identical to this one, but maybe at a different point in time, after this crisis had been resolved. Histoire had pinpointed its location and was preparing to teleport the group. Maxi was preparing and sharpening weapons, adding improvements for both those coming and those who were staying behind. Neptune was helping those who were staying behind prepare for what was to come. Oliver was sharpening his own blade, its beautiful sleek, silver, shining blade cutting through the darkness that now plagued this land. Luno was helping to move supplies around, his strength greatly aiding the process. Kupo was reloading guns and stocking ammo. Lance was holding the front lines, buying time for those getting ready.

Sushi and Yuuki were training, moving so fast that it was impossible to keep up or even really watch; there was no question that they would be ready. Eryn and Tenshi were somehow able to stay with Sushi, moving as fast as he was, maybe even faster, pinpointing holes in both his and Yuuki's defense, noting the things they could improve on. Every second they continued, they got stronger. Every minute that passed got them one step closer to absolute perfection. Every hour that went by lead them towards the light of a new and better future. _'This is the time...'_ Sushi thought to himself, _'This is the time to make a difference.'_

Jayden checked on the two siblings and immediately was breath-taken by their performance. Both of them had gotten a thousand times better, at least, from just the day before, and their performance then had been nothing to scoff at. He whistled sharply at the two going at each other, not pulling any punches, as if they actually intended to kill each other. After several minutes, they stopped, catching their breath and taking a break. Oliver came up to Jayden from behind and crossed his arms. "It's nearly time." Jayden's blonde best friend told him, "Soon we'll be leaving this world behind to go to another, and hopefully fix this one in the process. Are you ready?" Jayden remained silent, standing still for a while, then shaking his head. "Better get ready then. We've got two days at absolute maximum. We might even be leaving later today. Jayden made a sort of whatever gesture, and Oliver picked up on the cue. "Alright then, I'll be around if you need me." Yuuki stopped Oliver before he could leave, asking him for a duel. Of course, Oliver accepted, but not without some minor arguing beforehand. Sushi sat back and watched, Jayden walked over and sat next to him. He'd been trying to find something to take his mind off of things, and maybe this was what he needed. Oliver didn't draw his blade from the beginning, and Yuuki didn't have Tenshi or Eryn to give her critiques now as they were bound to her brother, not to her. As such, the both of them were operating on a slightly lower basis than they normally would, but that would change soon enough. Yuuki slowly drew Shi, leveling the blade at Oliver, and Oliver, rather nonchalantly, neglected to pull out a weapon at all. Yuuki questioned it, but Oliver assured her that this was his intention.

After establishing that he was, indeed, completely unwilling to draw his blade at the current moment, Yuuki rushed towards him, faster than should have been possible to react to, but Oliver caught the blade with his hand. While, yes, he was wearing a metal gauntlet, Shi's blade should have cut through the thing, rather than getting stopped by being caught. Oliver now drew his own blade and threw Yuuki back. Yuuki took that moment to reevaluate her attack, and then charged again, this time from the side. Oliver blocked the blade with ease, then turned and slashed out at Yuuki, his blade stopping just an inch from her neck. After a moment he withdrew the blade and stepped back as if he'd merely missed. Yuuki went to put Shi away, blushing slightly at how quickly she'd been beaten, but Oliver quickly stopped her. "Oh please, let's not stop there. Neither of us has landed a hit yet." Yuuki raised an eyebrow at Oliver's comment, "I didn't hit you, did I? Therefore the match is still going." Yuuki smiled at this and readied herself once more. For several more minutes, she attacked Oliver again and again; not getting much further with any of her later onslaughts, and eventually, Oliver put his blade away. "Okay, I think that's enough. Good work, Yuuki." Oliver offered his hand to shake as he forfeited the match, "I think I've seen all I need to see. You win." Yuuki shook his hand, but couldn't shake the confusion from her face. After all that time, she hadn't even gotten close to landing at hit (and he could've landed several hits, stopping just a tick from actually hitting her every time), he was now forfeiting?

Yuuki frowned, but accepted it and moved on, "Okay? Thanks. . . I guess?" Sushi shook his head from his spot against the wall, and Jayden got up and left, his thoughts occupied by other things. Oliver retreated to a quiet spot to prepare himself further, leaving the brother and sister together again. "I don't know what to say to that." Yuuki said to her brother, "That duel was over before it began."

Sushi shrugged, but his shoulders were tense, as if her were hiding something, "Maybe, but I daresay your still the best swordswoman I know. Even if you can't beat him, you're challenging someone who's literally taken on several armies full of armed men on his own. Then only stronger one you could challenge is maybe Jayden or Neptune. Besides, you didn't even try to use your new darkness power."

Yuuki frowned, "I still haven't figured it out really. . . I can play with it, but I can't really put it to practical use, short of a fireworks festival." As she said this, Yuuki conjured a small ball of the dark energy in her hand. "Still working it out. . ." Sushi stood up and ran his fingers through her long, dark brown hair. Yuuki looked up and looked her older brother in the eyes. Her eyes were a caramel brown colour. Over time, her hair had become slightly brighter and turned brown rather than black and she'd grown her hair out, leading to her having much longer, voluptuous hair running down to her waist. Wrapping his arms around her and pulling his sister into a hug, Sushi put his head on top of Yuuki's head and sighed deeply. She hugged him back, but they then separated a few moments later.

Yuuki sighed in relief, "Thanks, Onii-chan. It's always you who knows exactly what I need."

"Well, I am your big brother," Sushi replied, shrugging and smiling, "It's kind of what I'm here for." Sushi eased back and Yuuki had a seat next to him, leaning against him.

"Let's take a break. I think we're ready." Yuuki suggested. Sushi, without speaking, affirmatively responded that he agreed.

* * *

Standing on his balcony, remaining silent, Jayden stared off towards the tower that was the main base of operations for ASIC. This was their fault. They'd been the ones to set this whole damn thing in motion. If it wasn't for them, he probably could have had his happy ending by now. If it wasn't for them. . . Jayden's forehead suddenly felt hot; hotter than his anger burned for ASIC. He broke out into a cold sweat, and the world began to spin before him. Even though he was burning up, he began to shiver, and every solitary gust of wind sent a new round of chills through him. He fell to his knees as his ears began to ring, rocking his head with pain as he fell completely, clutching his head and writhing in pain. Jayden heard a knock at the door, but he was unable to answer. He tried to straighten himself out, only to collapse back to the floor. Jayden realized that he was vaguely aware of Neptune's voice, but it was distant. After what seemed like an eternity, Jayden could feel warmth returning to him, and everything began to settle. He noted that Neptune's arms were around him, and the two of them were sitting on his bed. Jayden blinked a few times to clear his head before looking up at his lover. There were tears in her eyes, and she tightly squeezed him now that she knew he was paying attention.

"True goddess, you idiot!" Neptune screamed at him, "What were you doing?!" Jayden didn't have an answer, what exactly _had_ just happened? Neptune pulled away from him, his body still shivering, and pressed her lips to his, passionately kissing him. As she did so, Jayden felt the last bit of chills run from his body. Everything about what Neptune was doing, giving him love, kissing him, even just being there, was already making him feel better. Jayden slowly began to understand.

' _It's everything you think it is and worse_ ,' a familiar voice told him. It was the same voice that had always spoken to him, the woman's voice that gave him new powers, ' _I've no powers for you this time, rather a warning. Anger is not your strong suit. If you let it, it will overtake you and burn you alive. Maintain your anger, and control it, don't let it control you. Cherish what makes you happy. It will make you strong._ ' Jayden acknowledged this, and then wrapped his arms around Neptune, holding her close as their lips parted. He didn't want her to go just yet. Picking up on this, Neptune lightly pushed him down onto the bed and lay down next to him. The two slowly drifted off to sleep after a few minutes passed. When they woke up, it was an hour or two later. Both of their faces were red, but Neptune hugged Jayden a little bit tighter anyway. Jayden lightly kissed the tip of her nose before sitting up and hopping off the bed.

"Thanks for that," Jayden said quietly, "To answer your question of: 'what happened,' I can't really say for sure. But I _do_ know that having you with me helps."

Neptune stood up and walked over to him and put her arms around his shoulders, "Well, you're not getting rid of me anytime soon, so I'll do my best to keep doing whatever it is that was helping." Jayden smiled, remembering now why he'd fallen in love with her in the first place. Back then they had been two completely polar opposites, but they'd come together because she'd been one of his best friends since the two of them were much younger. After some time, their friendship had simply gotten more intimate, up until the point where they'd become lovers.

Jayden sighed, "Was there really a need to recap on that? All of this was chapter twelve."

Neptune groaned and collapsed back on the bed, "We were having a moment, Jayden… why did you have to ruin it?" she then sat back up, "Actually no, never mind. You're right. All of that and more was the basis or that entire chapter. Breaking the forth wall and creating snark is kind of our job." Another knock at the door brought them both to their feet, and to their senses.

"Hello?" Jayden called to the door, "yes, who is it?" he asked as he popped open the door just slightly and peeked outside.

"It's the Metal-man Ginger, that's who," Maxi said from outside, "We're getting ready to leave. Come on down when you're ready."

Jayden nodded, "Right, sure. I just need to grab the rest of my stuff," He told the ginger. Maxi nodded and headed off down the hall to the stairs. Jayden turned and grabbed his backpack, full of all the things he would need, and turned to Neptune. "Party time." He told her, and she followed him out of the room and down the stairs. The people in the room, those of them going to the other dimension, included Maxi, Oliver, Histoire, Sushi and his two fairies, Yuuki, Luno, the four mascots, and now Neptune and Jayden as well.

"Let's get this over with, the sooner the better." Oliver said, his tone dark, indicating that he was not looking forward to what lay ahead. While it was true that Jayden was a bit nervous, he remembered what had happened earlier when he'd gotten negative. Trying to look for a silver lining actually rewarded him with a lot more than he expected.

"Well guys, look at it this way," Jayden said with a perky attitude, drawing everyone's attention, "By going on this journey, we're making this Gamindustri so much better for everyone here. Also, we're going on an adventure together! How awesome is that? We're gonna get to explore a whole bunch of different Gamindustris on the way to the one we need to get to, and then when we get there, we can do even more!" After staring at him for a long time, Maxi finally broke the silence, drawing everyone's gazes to himself.

"Yeah, he's got a point." The ginger genius said, slinging his arm around Jayden's shoulder, "And there's no one I'd rather take with me." Oliver smiled and walked over; slinging his own arm around Jayden's other shoulder.

"They are right," the golden-haired young man, "An adventure with friends is something to look forward to, no matter the destination or the path between. Let us look at it in the light we wish to find, not with the darkness we leave behind." Managing to brighten everyone up slightly, Jayden smiled and walked over to Histoire.

"Ready whenever you are." The young boy said to his mother. She smiled and handed him the orb and pulled out a device. Jayden laid the orb into the top of the device and it began to spin.

"Brace yourself!" Histoire warned, "The first jump is about to happen!" Jayden shielded his eyes with one hand and took Neptune's hand with the other. In a bright flash of light, Jayden felt his feet leave the ground, and slowly . . . surely . . . he felt himself leave the plane of this world behind.

* * *

When Jayden could see again, he was falling through the sky. "Well this feels familiar," he said to no one in particular. He couldn't see anyone else around, noting that the people he'd come here with had landed in different spots. As Jayden went to use his wings, he noted that his Halo was dark and that deploying his wings was impossible. Driven by fear, he did something he hadn't done in a long time.

 ** _Jayden used his HDD_**.

Transforming into his much more powerful soul form once more, Jayden immediately noticed that it was different. Rather than the dark outfit and aura of Shadow Soul, Jayden found himself with some more colour, some light and dark purples splashed in accents and designs on his armor. Speaking of power, he had two plasma shields on either of his arms, totaling four, and he was wearing armor akin to Mech-armor. Jayden turned and slammed into the ground on his feet, performing a stereotypical super-hero landing, bending his knees and punching the ground. When he got back to his feet, he looked around and took a survey of what he still had on him. Zhen had become a large metal Greatsword, which Jayden found was easy to wield one-handedly with his powered armor, and Fidelity had become a giant longsword. This felt new to him. He felt powerful, very powerful. Midori, Violet, Yami, and Buranka suddenly dropped into floating orbits around him.

"That's new and flashy," Midori commented, "Why was this never a thing you did back in the other dimension? This would have been very helpful.

"Certainly," Yami confirmed, "You've been holding out on us."

Jayden took three seconds to piece it all together, "Actually, I think my skillset and powers change with ever dimension I go to," he said, "I think the only things I've maintained are my magic skills (some of them at least), and my natural regen. Most of my equipment is still the same. This happened the last time I jumped dimensions too. So that's why I haven't been able to talk to my alt. souls. . . ."

"How drastically different is it?" Buranka inquired, "Surely some things have to be maintained, right?"

"Let's check!" Violet insisted. Jayden shifted out of HDD, and the mascots charged him with energy. Where his hair normally would've turned gold, it didn't. "Huh . . . so we can't charge you with energy anymore?"

"Maybe not necessarily," Jayden noted, "Before was a dire situation, so maybe it's just not as profound an effect? We can experiment more later, for now let's try and find the others." The mascots retreated into Jayden's inventory and he began to move around, checking to see if he could realize where he was. Coming upon what looked like a school, Jayden went to go inside to see if he could find someone to ask for directions and clarification, but was stopped by the sight of a zombie cornering two girls. Jumping to the rescue, Jayden rushed forward and shoulder charged the zombies out of the way. It was a much less powerful charge than he'd executed before, but it was still enough to make the zombies back up, and . . . for their heads to fall off? Jayden quickly realized that these were costumes and heard someone yell cut. "Shit! Sorry!" Jayden said, running over to help the two guys he'd just completely bowled over.

"Ugh shit!" one of the zombie guys managed, "Dude, you hit like a frickin' freight train! Are you on the football team?" Jayden shook his head.

"You should give it a try man; I think it'd suit you." The other guy said, to which Jayden simply shrugged. "We'll be fine, you didn't bang us up too badly, and these costumes are kinda bulky, so we're padded in here. We'll be fine. Thanks for checkin' in on us." Jayden gave them a thumbs up before walking over to the girl behind the camera.

"Sorry about that, "Jayden apologized, "Didn't see that camera." The girl's eyes went dull.

"Whatarya doin' Jay?!" she asked him, "Your brain outta town or something?" Jayden shrugged.

"You could say that," the boy replied, "It's a bit more drastic than that, Nep." It was indeed a Neptune he was talking to. That was natural; this dimension would probably have one of each of the goddesses and candidates. That was just normal. It just so happened that they were school girls and guys this time around?

"Hey, whatarya wearin'?" SG (School Girl) Neptune asked him, "I'm diggin' it, but it's not your uniform, you know? I knew you said you were going to get changed, but maybe your uniform is better, yeah?" It suddenly occurred to Jayden that there would be another of HIM as well, and that line indicated that the other him would be back quite soon.

"Hey Neptune, who's that?" Jayden suddenly heard his own voice behind him and turned around to see another on of himself, just with shorter hair. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh is right, but I think I'd like to correct it to 'Oh shit' while you're there." Jayden replied to himself.

"You're me." Jayden said.

"Yes I am." Jayden replied.

"How is that possible?" Jayden asked.

"That's a good question which I'm currently think about myself." Jayden responded.

"How did you get here?" Jayden inquired.

"Also a good question," Jayden answered, "Maybe you should ask the author." Jayden shook his head at himself. SG (School Guy) Jayden was dressed in a back button down shirt with a red tie, and black pants, complete with black penny-loafers with actual pennies in them. "You know, I look pretty good in a school uniform." Jayden told his SG self.

"You're telling me," The school boy fired back, "I'm thinking that pure white hoodie and jeans is more my thing." Jayden shrugged.

"Meh, either works- are we really having a discussion about fashion right now?" he asked his school boy self.

"Would it really be us if we weren't?" SG Jayden replied.

"You raise a fair point-"

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" Both Jayden's jumped as Blanc stormed in and screamed at them. "JAYDEN, WHY ARE THERE TWO OF YOU?!" SG Jayden threw his arms in the air.

"I don't know!" the flustered school boy said, "I went to change into my back uniform and he was here when I came back!" Blanc took a moment to contemplate this then turned to Neptune. Neptune's train of thought was obviously still boarding at the station. The Lowee goddess sighed and put her hands on her hips.

"Okay new Jayden, explain. I want a good answer." Blanc told him, "Otherwise, just in case you don't know, I've got a very special set of skills and a _very_ large hammer if you're lying to me."

Jayden shrugged, "Plot convenience?" was his answer. Blanc sighed then relaxed.

"Okay, so the film-making gods have given me you so I don't have to waste money on special effects for the movie. That works for me." The small, yet intimidating girl said quietly. Jayden didn't understand what she was saying, but did note that he had better things to be doing. After a moment or two, Jayden's eyes locked onto movement in the background of what he was seeing. It was a zombie. A _REAL_ zombie this time. Jayden burst forwards with gusto and grabbed the zombie, throwing it back at his SG self. Luckily, he and himself were completely in sync and SG Jayden jumped up, drawing Zhen's light-blade and slashing the zombie with a mid-air twirl, the zombie bursting into pixels, then the pixels retreating off into the sky. Jayden hurried back over and fist-bumped himself.

"Now that's what I call a combo," SG Jayden said. Jayden nodded in response.

"Was that an actual zombie?" Blanc asked as she processed what had just happened. BOTH Jaydens nodded. "Cool, so we don't have to waste money on special effects for those either." Jayden turned and looked himself in the eye, noting that his School guy self not only had shifting coloured rainbow eyes, but also had two different eyes; his left eye was colour negative.

"What?" SG Jayden asked, blushing at his own stare "Is there something on my face?"

"No, not at all, me," Jayden told himself, "I'm just noting that you have both Heterochromia Iridis and Heterochromia Iridium. That's crazy. I've only got Heterochromia Iridis." His School self frowned, "Heterochromia Iridium is when one person has two different eye colours, Heterochromia Iri _dis_ is when one eye has two different colours." SG Jayden nodded understandingly.

"So now then, do I just have duplicates of you, or do I have duplicates of other people too?" Blanc asked Jayden.

"Well, you could wind up not only with duplicates, but with several new actors for a while; it depends on how long I'm staying. I didn't come here alone, but I arrived alone." The mascots exited his inventory and took their human forms. "Okay, for the most part." Jayden took the time to introduce the mascots to his school self, SG Neptune, SG Blanc, SG Rom, and SG Ram. Apparently Rom and Ram had been the girls pinned against the wall by the zombies? Whatever, Jayden wasn't one to question it.

* * *

Oliver was not having quite such a brilliant time. He'd also landed on his own, but quite far from the school where Jayden was, and quite far from pretty much anything. He was executing some rather ludicrously powerful combos, sending zombies, monsters, and monster zombies flying, and no particular discrimination in what he was hitting. Most of his combos started off on his fists, then transitioned into using his blade to end the combos with a few rending slashes. As the blonde powerhouse cut his way through a crowd of foes, he noted that he was not the only one launching enemies all over the place. Another similar occurrence was happening just a distance away, just much more hectic. It was so hectic to the point where Oliver couldn't see who the center of this dogoo-tornado was. The monsters around began to ignore Oliver and only attack whatever was over there. Oliver merely shrugged, knowing that this made sense; after all, that's how agro works. As Oliver got closer, he had to remember to keep his guard up, so as not to be beaned in the head with a flying Super-Otaku or Real-Gamer as they were sent through the air. When Oliver was within 50 feet of the event, a powerful shockwave sent every monster flying, bursting into pixels before they hit the ground. Standing at the center was none other than Luno. Luno looked over at Oliver and gave a friendly wave with his giant clawed hand. As he lowered his appendage, his claws reverted to fingers. Luno then raised one finger, with the tip of it glowing with a bright blue glow, into the air, curiously staring up. Without lowering the finger, the metal giant turned his box head to Oliver, the unblinking red light pulsing slightly as he spoke.

"Scans indicate almost Six hundred percent more share energy present in the atmosphere than in our Hyperdimension." Luno indicated, "Such a surplus of shares and energy are commonplace to this Hyperdimension and will not affect the residents at all. As for members of our own Hyperdimension, this much energy can be used to execute a Hard Drive Divinity Transformation. Analysis indicates that this form will be very helpful to you if you can manage the skill. Analysis and previous experience indicates that this should be attempted and proven/disproven now, rather than having it fail in a situation where you would have relied on it. Do you wish to attempt this first or should I?" Oliver looked at his hand and sheathed his blade, taking a step back.

"I'll try this first if you don't mind," the blonde asked the bio-bot. Luno nodded and stepped back. Oliver gathered as much share energy in his body as he could before letting the energy rush forth, enveloping his entire figure and changing him in a bright beam of light. When the transformation was done, he had a look at himself.

"HDD successful." Luno observed and indicated at the same time. Oliver's hair had turned a brighter golden colour, and his armor and cloak had been replaced by a mechanical suit of armor, similar to an exoskeleton, but much more protective and durable-looking, not to mention, _MUCH_ cooler. There was no armor on Oliver's head, save for a metallic laurel crown with golden leaves and silver band. He also had a dark indigo cape to compliment his mostly black and gold armor. His blade, normally a silver blade with a golden guard and counter-weight and a red grip, was now a dark grey blade with a black titanium-alloy guard, and a dark indigo grip. The blade of the sword was much wider now, yet still balanced just as well as before.

Oliver looked at Luno after transforming back. "Your turn." Luno brought his arms up into what looked like a praying position and stood still for a second before Oliver was thrown flying. When Oliver recovered and ran back over, he was missing an almost decent chunk of health. As he looked however, Luno was quite a sight to behold.

"Operation Complete. Transformation Successful." The golem noted. Luno's metallic body had gained an almost gem-like luster, shining as if he'd just been polished, not to mention, his metal had become black rather than grey. His hands and forearms were surrounded in a constant pulsing orange-yellow fire made of pure energy, and behind him was a floating circle with several runes glowing along the edges and one big rune in the center. His red light on his face had become bright green instead of red, and constantly leaked energy. What the leaking energy meant was two things. The first was a healing aura for his friends and allies; Oliver could feel the damage from the shockwave healing right off. The second thing that meant was a damaging aura for his enemies and foes. The energy leaking from Luno's eye was share energy which damaged monsters and zombies, yet healed those that could use it. "Analysis indicates that these forms will be extremely helpful in fighting off the monsters of this version of the Hyperdimension. This world's name is . . . **_Gamacademi_** ; a version of Gamindustri where education is among the top values, right along with the production of films and games." Luno said. Oliver nodded slowly, and then gestured for Luno to follow as he began to walk off in some direction. "Scans indicate that everyone made it here safely. Jayden has the easiest energy signature to detect, trace, and find. Jayden is this way." Luno gestured North with his entire hand, rather than just a finger. Oliver changed his course and headed in the indicated direction with the menacing metal golem behind him. It was hard to go very far without encountering monsters, but Oliver and Luno made rather quick work of them as a team. Either of them was strong enough alone, but together they were nearly unstoppable. Oliver remembered to make note of this as they continued.

* * *

Maxi was having a wonderful time. As he walked through the cave behind a wave of his wooden puppet automata, He occasionally checked his phone to see how long it was taking. Every time he checked his phone only five to seven minutes had passed. Histoire was also keeping note of how much he was checking his phone and was disappointed to find that time was the only reason. Maxi had only checked his phone three or four times when they reached the end of the cave. Maxi pulled out his capsule spear and advanced as the puppets formed up around him. Having a look around, Maxi noted that this dimension looked slightly familiar, but that was probably going to be the case with every dimension they went to. They were alternate versions of each other and would probably wind up bearing some similarities. As they walked down the path, Maxi eventually disabled his puppets due to not needing them anymore. Histoire floated up behind him.

"I've pinpointed Jayden's location. He should be in this general vicinity." Histoire said as a small indicator light showed up on Maxi's mini-map on his cyber-lens. "The sooner we regroup with them the sooner we can make another jump.

"The device needs a few days to recharge, so we'll be a while anyway." Maxi responded, "Though your suggestion is the most logical course of action. Since Jayden is so easy to find, I imagine that everyone will probably meet up by him anyways." As Maxi said this, a streak of purple flew over their heads towards the general area where Jayden was, "See? There goes Neptune. We must be heading the right way then."

"Yes," Histoire said with a slightly annoyed expression, "as a mother, I'd like to think I'm quite capable of finding my son." This had not occurred to the puppet master. He waved his hand dismissively. "Yes, but don't take my word for it, trust your technology instead. I'm sure you'll find that he's exactly where I showed you."

"Actually no," Maxi said plainly. Histoire looked at him as he pulled up a 3D holo-map, "My sources say he's here, you say he's there. Which do you want to check first?" Histoire took a moment, not wanting to embarrass herself. Rather, she took the polite angle, indicating that they should check his spot first. "Alright, sure," his tone was dismissive, but Histoire wasn't sure what to make of it. According to prior knowledge, Maxi was rather good at maintaining his temper, so he could have been really pissed off and she wouldn't have known. Nonetheless, she decided she would follow him to see which one of them had been right. As they progressed towards Maxi's indicated location, histoire began to wonder what she'd really gotten herself into. Granted, she knew Maxi quite well, but she still wasn't sure how many times she would be randomly be falling out of the sky or tumbling into a cave in the weeks to come.

Somehow she knew she wasn't going to like the answer.

* * *

 **Leave a comment and tell me what you thought!**

* * *

 **Wow, that actually went surprisingly well. Anyway, I have a review/comment here that needs a response, so here goes.**

 **AIYF Productions said: "** You know, I really like your story dude. From tropes to cameos and even new and familiar characters that show up,they feel like they belong. This story seriously needs more attention. Having been here since the very first chapter, I know that a lot of people would like this story. **"**  
 **Response: Um... wow... I'm glad I'm in my room so no one can see how hard I'm blushing right now. Thank you so much! I'm glad you like all the characters that I added to the story, that's always been one of my concerns. And again, thanks for being with me since chapter one!**

 **Oh, and I'm only just realizing now that I have another comment from Mr. Fell. I can't really see who this is since he posted it in guest mode, but that's okay. We accept everyone here. Mr. Fell said: "** Mmmmkay...so, the text wall kinda turned me away at first until I saw that it was actually a reasonable length. The happy medium between "diary entry fragments" and "your college application essay". And I haven't read too far into this particular story, but at the very least, you haven't gone down the pit many other Neptunia writers have fallen through. By which I mean they either make their protagonist "THE ordinary high school teenager" or "the god modding Stu a la Kamen Rider Kabuto" or even "the guy whose life you can literally describe with 'CRAWWWWLLIINNNGGGG IN MY SKIIIIINNNNNN!'"

Pretty solid fic here, keep up the good work. I'll be watching.

Best regards,  
-Fell **"  
Okay, I almost fell off my seat while reading this review, mainly because of the "CRAWWWWLLIINNNGGGG IN MY SKIIIIINNNNNN!" At the same time, I also don't know how to respond to this, because this comment was left on chapter two and I'm sort of afraid to see what you'd say about Jayden now... Anyway, I appreciate that you actually gave me commentary. On the wall of text thing... yeah... I have that problem. It's solved in some of the more recent chapters... I think. Also, length? Um... I can see you haven't read chapter 21 yet, that's double the length of chapter two... I really hope you're not mad about that... If so then... oops? Oh also... "**"the god modding Stu a la Kamen Rider Kabuto" **" Um... *Cue 5:34 of Ghost love score accompanied by animated scene of 24's brain exploding* I have no idea what that means... I think your comment was positive though so... thanks!**

 **That is all I have for this time so-!**

 **I hope you all have a lovely evening, and, be it here or anywhere elsewhere, may we meet again upon another chapter! Buh-bye!**


	27. Jayden and Luno Vs Zombies

**A/n: Oh hey look, 24 actually got the chapter done. *Cue lame applause* Alright, so this is…**

 **Paradox, Chapter 27: Jayden + Luno vs. Zombies!**

* * *

Jayden rushed back and forth, slashing zombies and torching monsters with his blades and spells. As Jayden delivered a fiery slash to a zombie, he turned to his twin in the school uniform.

"Hey, Me," he started to inquire to himself, "How close are we to securing the school and the city?"

"That depends on how well the others are doing, other me." SG Jayden responded, "However…" he turned and bashed a horde of zombies back with his twin riot shields, then blasted them away with his twin shotguns, "…We are done here. We can attend to other matters such as healing the wounded and bettering our equipment for the final fight.

* * *

Similarly, Maxi and Oliver were back to back, blades flying as they cut down zombies that approached. As they got down to the final waves, Maxi and Oliver dealt the final blow with a team skill.

 **"** **Infinity Drive!"** the two yelled in unison and blew up the nearest mile and a half radius with a white light that got rid of the zombies. Maxi dusted himself off and turned to his blonde companion.

"I suppose that wraps this up. How are you holding up?" the Ginger Spear asked.

"I am fine," Oliver replied, "I'm just looking forward to wrapping up the first story arc of Paradox so we can move onto the next one. It's going to be so much fun, I can already tell."

Maxi raised an eyebrow, "doesn't the next arc of the story take place in a different world entirely? What about all the people we'll be leaving behind here?"

"Maxi, have I ever led you wrong?" Oliver asked seriously.

Maxi took a moment to contemplate this. Truthfully, no, Oliver had never led him wrong, and he couldn't remember a time when Oliver had ever _been_ wrong. Granted, he'd been wrong just last chapter when he'd told Histoire that Jayden was in one place, but he was actually where Histoire had said he was in the first place. It wasn't his fault that his mapping sensors weren't used to an excess of shares in the air, but it felt like his fault, so he sucked up his pride and took the L. "Yeah, you're right just like you always are," he said with a smile to his best friend, "What makes you think it'll be so fun?"

"Well 24's been having a lot of fun thinking out that Arc, so that means that the story should be more fleshed out, and the quality should go up in general. Not to mention, that particular section of the archive doesn't have a whole lot of completed stories, most of them pop up and fade away. If we continue through, then we can actually give the people a full story to read that spans every part of that new universe were going to."

"Has chapter Eight of Puppet Master come out yet?" Maxi asked him, and Oliver shook his head in response, "So then the readers don't know what universe that might be that we're going to?" Oliver raised an eyebrow to this comment, "See, what had happened was, 24 and I were having a chat in the middle of it, and he forgot to turn off his recording device, so a good chunk of that conversation is in the middle of it, and it sort of reveals like, every detail we're hiding right now."

"So they don't know we're going to Sword Art Online next?" Oliver asked.

Maxi's face met his palm, "GODS, DAMNIT OLIVER!" Maxi took a moment to take a few deep breaths and maintain his cool, "Well they know _now,_ Jackass. But that's going to be rated M so, you know, that's fun.

"What's it going to be rated M for?" Oliver asked, "What haven't we done already that we can't continue doing?"

"Well.. apparently there are going to be some… *ahem* _interesting_ scenes and things happening. Oh, and the violence is going to be incredible, we're taking **Doom™** level shit here." Maxi answered. Oliver's jaw dropped.

"Well let's get going then! Wouldn't want to hold that up!" and with that, Oliver grabbed Maxi's shirt and pulled him towards the next thing they had to do.

* * *

Neptune was pretty relaxed. She was with her School-Girly self, as well as the SG version of Uzume Tennouboshi, who did _not_ really look that different. The zombies and monsters around here were no match for her, and one swipe could easily fell hundred o them if she was trying. Granted, even her current, much lazier wipes were still taking out twenty to thirty per shot due to the energy wave they released. After a while, Uzume lost her patience.

"Hey! Nepsy! You should try going HDD and finishing this!" Uzume called to SG Neptune. Sg Neptune was busy struggling with a group of zombies.

"Kinda busy!" SG Neptune called back.

"Oh for fuck's sake." Neptune said wearily. She planted both feet on the ground.

 **"** **64-bit Mega-Strike-Blade!"** Neptune yelled. A giant blade materialized out of pixels and Neptune gave it a mighty swing across the field, downing almost a thousand zombie with the initial slash, then another two or three thousand with the resulting energy wave. The blade dissipated into pixels and Neptune went back to lunging around. "Geez, struggles of a main character."

"Well, I'm sorry that I don't have time to grind levels all day!" Uzume yelled at her.

Neptune simply started walking back towards the school. "Yeah, whatever, Maybe I wouldn't have to bust your ass out of so many situations if you spent some more time studying and knew some actually useful skills instead of just making a magical music note that sits in place until it hits an enemy or you blow it up or something." She commented, "Seriously, I'd be more than willing to help you if you'd accept it."

Uzume had to think about that. It was a bit of a blow to her pride, but she quickly nodded. If this version of Neptune had anything insane like that last skill to teach her, then she would be absolutely set. "Yeah, if you wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate that."

"Sure, we'll start when the school and City are secured. I'd hate to have our sessions interrupted but a stupid DQN or something, you know?" Neptune replied with a smile and a thumbs up.

"Sure." Uzume answered and walked next to Neptune back towards the school.

"Wait for me guuuuuys!" SG Neptune cried out as she ran after them, "Rats! I wish I was still a main character, but I'm just a side heroine in this gaaaaaame!"

* * *

Luno stood making the magic boundary nodes of the containment field. This would keep any sort of monsters or zombies from getting into the school and city, but it would also still allow him and his group to pass through and go in and out to fight the zombies and eventually fix the problem. Rom and Ram rode on either of his shoulders and helped out with the magic part of it. Luno would provide a surge of energy while the two pumped magic through the boundary nodes in order to activate them. Luno rushed off towards the next one, Rom and Ram giggling and cheering at the speed he was moving. Maxi had upgraded the metal of his body to something called **Feather Iron**. It was neither light as a feather, nor as weak as iron, rather it was about the same weight as titanium, and about as durable as something maybe thirty to fifty times stronger. In other words, it was a big upgrade, allowing Luno to move faster, attack with the same, if not more power, and take less damage from attacks. Granted he wasn't taking much damage before, and he had enough skills and tactics to make it to the point where he didn't really take damage at all, but this was a failsafe. As Luno was finishing the last node, he heard a distant rumble, just enough for him to pick up. It was several monsters, judging from the sound and energy signatures headed his way. Unfortunately, it would take more time than he had to finish before they got to him. Nonetheless, Luno continued with the boundary node until it was finished. As he was about to leave, he could sense something behind him. He turned just in time to block an attack from an Action Machine. Luno knocked the enemy back, only to discover that there were three more, two King Pacs, and a very tough looking Archrival Bot. Luno set Rom and Ram behind him. It didn't seem like they were going to be able to handle such a force of boss-level monsters. Luno, however, remained calm, and placed himself between the twins and the advancing beasts in order to protect them. As the first King Pac came up and attacked with its tail, Luno activated a thin, blue layer of energy around his body, negating the damage, and grabbed the monster's tail. Using the monster like a morning star now, Luno bashed the second King Pac over the head with the first and grabbed the second King Pac by its tail as well. With a mighty swing, he smashed both monsters into the ground in front of him, and then smashed them together, the monsters bursting into pixels as a result. As the first Action Machine attacked, Luno obliterated the monster where it stood with a powerful beam from his eye. As the other three attacked together, Luno surrounded his hands in the same blue energy from before and slammed his hands together, creating a shockwave that launched the monsters further away than he'd ever have to deal with. With just the Archrival Bot left, Luno jumped up into the air, his hands changing to claws, digging his claws deep into the bot's mechanical torso, and tearing the robot in half, the resulting pixels dissipating through the air. Luno, satisfied and finished, turned his claws back to hands, and then walked back over to Rom and Ram who smiled and allowed him to pick them up with a problem. He set the twins back on his shoulders and walked back towards the school.

* * *

Jayden stretched and eased back as the sun began to set. SG Jayden sat next to him, straightening his tie and giving a rather deep sigh.

"That was a big one," Jayden told his School-Guy Self, "What's on your mind?"

"I'm not entirely sure," the duplicate said to his alternate, "It's mostly about the school closing and all that, I'm not even entirely sure what we could do. I don't want the school to close, Jay, I'm... attached to it I guess."

"Well, we're making the moving, right?" Jayden said, "There's not much of a need to worry, the movie should be able to provide enough revenue and recognition, right?"

"What if it doesn't work?" SG Jayden answered, "What if it's just not enough?"

Jayden sat up and looked the younger, school-guy version of himself in the eye, "Hey, you're me, right?" Jayden asked his twin. SG Jayden nodded and eased back a bit, much like his twin was doing. "well, at some point or another, you'll realize that the world is gonna do whatever it damn well pleases. It has a funny habit of doing that. Even if you try a million times, ninety-nine out of a hundred will end exactly the same. Sometimes you just gotta roll with it and move onto something else." Jayden sighed, but more easily and relaxed than his SG twin had done so, "That's how I met you." he said, poking the boy next to him in the stomach, "I don't think it's much of a coincidence."

SG Jayden smiled now and leaned back on his hands, "Well, if I can't trust myself, then who can I trust? I suppose you're right." he said easily before turning back to Jayden. "Thank you, me."

"You're welcome, me." was Jayden's answer. "We're making progress enough on the zombie issue, so at least we won't have to worry about that after a while."

"Right, right, you said Maxi was working on pinpointing Hachimajin's location, right?" SG Jayden asked.

"Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he was almost done by now." Jayden answered, "Also, I don't think Luno has actually been in the building yet. I think he's only going inside when he gets back. The same for Oliver, they got here as soon as we set out to take care of other things."

"Mayhaps we should check." SG Jayden suggested as he stood, "and from what we find we'll just… roll."

Jayden patted his school guy alter on the back, "There you go. We'll work stuff out."

* * *

Luno stood just outside when he let Rom and Ram down off his shoulders. The twins scurried off to do something else, probably to find Blanc. Luno stepped inside the building, noting that it felt very familiar. "My memory is shaky at best, but I propose that there is a forty six percent chance that I have been here before." Luno said quietly to no one in particular, "Previous experience and logic dictate that careful observation is required to further this point. Observation commencing." Luno walked the halls, coming to an old science room. On the board of said room was one specific paper that looked even more familiar. "This is my handwriting." Luno observed, "If this is my handwriting, and this building seems familiar to me, probability jumps from forty six to ninety eight percent that I have been here before." Luno checked around more, stumbling across an old, weathered binder sitting in one of the desks. "This binder belonged to a Lunares Solulia Penumbra. Penumbra is also Maxi's last name. Analysis indicates that this binder most likely has some connection to someone that Maxi might know." Luno walked down the hall into a different room where Maxi was.

"Need something, Luno?" Maxi asked upon seeing his friend enter the room, "What's that you've got there?"

"This binder belongs to another Penumbra." Luno stated, "Probability equals zero that it belongs to you, but it is likely that it may be someone related to you."

"Another Penumbra you say?" Maxi inquired, "The only other Penumbra I know is Kupo, but he's not here, and he wouldn't have ever been here. Do I have another brother I don't know about? What's the full name, Luno?"

"The full name written is Lunares Solulia Penumbra, written on the inside of the front cover in this handwriting." Luno said, pointing out the scrawled text.

"Luno…" Maxi said quietly, "That's your name. This is your handwriting. Buddy… this is your binder."

Luno's eye light went dark for a moment, which was the equivalent of his face going blank. "If this binder belongs to me, then that means you and I have the same last name. Logic dictates that whatever produced you is not the same thing that produced me. Such would be impossible. Analysis indicates that this binder is full of magic spells. I do not know magic. I run on magic, but cannot use it." Luno said this as he turned through some of the pages, eventually coming to one that had a picture of something that looked like him. "This picture bears an eighty five percent resemblance to my own appearance." Luno observed.

"Luno, let me have a look…" Maxi said, taking the binder and flipping through it. He noted that most of the magic was some hefty dark magic, and utilized the use of technology, and Magic and technology didn't usually mix that well. Then again, Luno was a culmination of both, so maybe…? "Luno… I'm going to propose an Idea, and I know you aren't going to like it, but you're going to have to listen to me."

"The human emotion of trust accurately describes our relationship, Maxi." Luno stated, "Please continue."

"Right, so here's the deal…" Maxi took a deep breath, "I think at some point you were indeed a human… but you did whatever you are now to yourself." Luno's face went blank again. "A lot of these notes include combinations of dark magic spells and technology. It sounds a lot like what you are now. According to this page here, your golem form is held by something called a Core of Shadow."

"Oh." Luno said as he pulled down a small door in the top left corner of his chest and pulled out a small crystal. "Analysis indicates a ninety nine percent chance that this is the Core of Shadow that book speaks of. What does the book say from there?"

"Well, it seems like you made the Core of Shadow because you needed a way of maintaining the dark energy in your body into one spot. It's not active right now, but if you do activate it then you should… uh… turn into a human again? Apparently." Luno looked at the crystal for a moment.

"How do I do that?" the golem asked.

"Apparently it's some kind of mental trigger, so you can turn it on and off whenever you want." Luno's eye went dark one more time before Luno disappeared from the room in a burst of pixels, data, and light. Maxi fell over backwards from surprise, but quickly recovered. After a moment or two, Maxi realized that he could still feel Luno's aura in the surrounding area. There was no mistaking it, it was definitely Luno. That crystal probably just had some weird side effects the first few times you used it, so he wasn't concerned. With that, Maxi went back to working on finding Hachimajin, the Zombie King.

* * *

Neptune was walking up the sidewalk towards the school As she walked up the side walk, she sensed something wrong about to happen. This situation was too calm anyway. She looked up to see something falling out of the sky. It looked like a satellite. Wait… crap, it was a satellite. Neptune jumped back to avoid the burning piece of metal crashing down from the sky, barely avoiding being burned or crushed by the falling mass of metal parts. Neptune took a moment to take in exactly WTF had just happened, and whether or not it should concern her. As she stared at the smoking wreckage of the hunk of burning metal, she slowly began to realize something.

" ** _Shit_**..." she muttered quietly, "Blanc's script is becoming true...?"

"No, no, nothing like that…" a familiar voice said from among the wreckage, "I'm just an idiot…" a young boy stepped out from the wreckage. He didn't look much more than fourteen or fifteen, matter of fact, he could've been even younger, but everyone in anime looks around that age range. His voice sounded Familiar, but Neptune didn't recognize his appearance. "Oh, hello Neptune. Hope I didn't startle you too badly."

"Right, sure. I'm fine." Neptune replied, "Care for an explanation, though?"

"I suppose?" the boy replied, "This sort of just happened, though I suppose I look a bit different now, don't I?"

Neptune's eyes went wide, "Holy crap, Luno. Is this you?"

"Yes, I suppose it is." Luno replied, "Just… human-like." Luno regained his balance and stumbled out of the wreckage with a binder in his hand. Neptune was rather surprised that the binder hadn't burned up in that ordeal. "Now then… let's get this back into space." Luno said. The binder began to levitate just slightly off of Luno's hand, and the pages turned themselves as Luno cast a spell in a language that Neptune didn't know. The result was the satellite being encased in a translucent bubble of energy that began to repair it. The repairs went quite quickly, and then the bubble shot upwards with an according hand gesture from Luno. Neptune assumed that meant that the satellite was back in space. "Now I suppose is the point where we figure out whether or not Luno knows how to configure his own creations. This should be… entertaining."

* * *

Luno was working with some intense magic and technology at the same time. Maxi was amazed to see the way he worked things together. Frankly, it had never occurred to Maxi that magic and technology. Usually it turned out much more volatile, especially when the stuff you started with was already so violent. Dark magic was never something Maxi had any temptations to mess with. "How did you figure all of this out?" Maxi asked and Luno used a violet flame to heat something in a beaker, pouring out with the use of a funnel into a beaker. "One wrong move and the whole thing could… I dunno… kill you? Several times over probably."

"Yes, you're very right." Luno replied, "There was a reason I was a stone beast when you first met me. There's also a reason that upgrading me to titanium was so very easy." Luno turned to him with a point-proving finger raised and a very pleased look on his face, "I made it so."

"Wait, are you telling me that you made yourself into that golem on purpose? That wasn't some kind of freak accident?" Maxi shot back, surprised.

"Well, the box head thing was a bit of an accident, but that's not anything I can change." Luno answered, "It was mostly because I was rushed into such a decision. Boxes and rectangular shapes are easy, yes?" Luno grabbed the Core of Shadow and examined it for a moment. "Now this interesting thing… I don't remember where this came from, nor how exactly it happened, but I know that you… you are the key to controlled transformation without share energy… you can help me change between human and golem forms. The question is…" Luno disposed of the tongs and picked up the Core with his hands. "How do I activate and toggle you?" Luno held up the Core of Shadow and looked at it straight on. "I'm probably over thinking this. What if it-?" Luno dropped the Core of Shadow into the pocket on the left side of his chest on his shirt. With the Core in said pocket, small shadowy particles appeared in the air around him, made his form go dark as well, and then changed his form into the taller, menacing figure that his golem form carried. When the particles dissipated, and Luno returned to his normal colour scheme, he was indeed in his golem form once more. Luno raised one hand to the small compartment on his chest where the pocket had been. Sure enough, the Core of Shadow was inside it. Luno's eye went dark as he changed back to human form. "Process complete, research successful." He noted with a satisfactory smile. Maxi stared in amazement.

"I've seen the combination of magic and tech before, but it's only gone so far as enchanting weaponry, really. How did you figure out… whatever you wanna call that?" Maxi asked him, genuinely curious, "It seems like that would require a lot of… trial and error." Maxi shuddered slightly at the thought.

"Yes…" Luno said simply, "Yes." Maxi leaned back slightly. Maxi knew he was psychotic, but Luno was just a bit disturbing from how indifferent he was.

"Doesn't this disturb you?" Maxi asked, "At all…?"

"When I became a stone beast, I sort of became unfeeling at the same time." Luno replied, "So no. It doesn't." Maxi made a mental note that Luno may have been much more psychotic than he appeared. Suddenly, there was a rumbling nearby. Luno quickly grabbed his binder and lightly tapped Maxi on the shoulder. "Go time." Maxi sent a message to Oliver as the two took off, readying his spear.

"Right, right. Better cue up a music track or something."

* * *

"So it's a giant zombie?" Oliver asked as the group of three ran in, "I imagine we can finish this off quickly, that is if you'll give me a boost Luno." Luno threw Oliver upwards towards the zombie, only for it to bat him out of the air back towards the ground. Oliver got back up without complaining, seemingly unhurt. Oliver shook himself off a bit before nodding slightly. "Yeah, okay. Should've seen that coming, stupid." He told himself out loud, "Let's see him try and deal with this." Oliver's armor began to glow, changing to a different form. His blade darkened to a shadowy grey, and the grip changed to a dark indigo. After the first few changes, the signature beam of light of an HDD transformation burst outwards, changing Oliver to his ascended state. Luno followed suit, followed by Maxi. Maxi's HDD looked very much like a Wraith Knight from a popular strategy game that he'd played a while ago. It was a red power suit complete with two spears equipped, one in each hand. A green gem was placed in the center of the chest, and Maxi was situated inside the suit, operating it from inside the provided protection. "Maxi, lock him up for me so I've got time to strike. I'll weaken him from down here, and Luno… you do your thing." Luno leapt upwards and socked the giant zombie across the face, causing it to stumble back right towards Maxi who leapt up and gashed through the zombie's back with both spears, paralyzing it with a poisonous application to his blades. Oliver rushed back and forth, hacking away at the zombie from the ground, dealing minimal damage, but this was only to stall for time while his real plan came to fruition.

Luno signaled to the Blonde Warrior that he was ready. Oliver ran towards the golem and jumped, bracing himself and readying his sword. Oliver launched into the air after Luno threw him, raising his blade high and driving it through the skull of the giant zombie before them. With a blast of energy and a loud roar, the giant toppled over and burst into pixels, leaving behind a hefty sum of credits, and a few crafting ingredients. The three reverted from their HDD forms to conserve energy.

"That's that." Oliver said, dusting off his hands and legs, "What now?"

Maxi pulled out his phone and a Bluetooth speaker, "Dance party?"

"No, too soon." Oliver answered, "Let's report back to Histoire and see if Blanc needs any 'acting' done."

"Analysis indicates a 94% chance that Oliver posts the better option." Luno stated.

"Fuck you, then..." Maxi said putting away his phone, "I had 'Running in the 90's' cued up and everything."

Oliver shook his head as he began to head back towards the academy, Luno close behind. Maxi eventually accepted his defeat and headed back behind him.

* * *

When they arrived, Sushi and Yuuki were in the yard, clashing swords again. It seemed like this was their main form of passing time. Whenever they had free time, this was what they spent it on, training day in and out to prepare for what was to come. When Luno, Maxi, and Oliver approached, the brother and sister stopped dueling to welcome them back.

"Welcome back." Sushi greeted the three.

"Yup, Welcome back." Yuuki agreed, "Chief wanted to talk to you guys I think."

"You can stop calling him chief." Oliver noted suddenly, "He's not really our leader. If anything, Histoire is really the leader here, and she insists we call her by name anyway. Has Jayden, even once, asked that you call him 'chief?' Somehow that doesn't seem like him. He doesn't even take credit for half of the work he does."

"Well, no." Sushi answered, "It's just something we picked up at some point, though that sort of change is an easy one."

"Well, one thing's for sure; I sure as hell ain't callin' him chief." Maxi added, "I think Oliver would make a better 'chief,' what do you think?"

"Maybe." Yuuki noted, "But Ollie doesn't really take charge; he just lets us do our own things and that usually works. Also, this is a bit off topic, but how many chapters do you think are left in this arc of the story? Earlier in the chapter you were talking about wrapping this one up to move to the next one."

"You weren't even there for that discussion." Jayden noted, showing up seemingly out of nowhere, "I wasn't there for that discussion either. I know about that chat because the author usually talks to me about these things in between chapters. How did _you_ know about that?" he asked.

"That is a lovely question," Yuuki told him, "to which I have no answer."

Jayden gave a light sigh and looked at the camera. "See, Ladies and gentlemen… this is why we can't have nice things."

"Are you gonna tell me or not?" Yuuki interrupted him.

"Well I wasn't planning on it," Jayden replied, "Mainly because I'm not really sure."

"Oh come on, Jayden." Sushi encouraged him, "We're all curious. Besides, I think a _lot_ more people are going to be more interested in the story once we get into that kind of thing."

"I mean, sure. You're probably completely right." Jayden said, "Though, I've only got a rough estimate, and that is about five or six more chapters until we're ready to finish it up. That's only assuming everything goes well and we can take out Hachimajin in this episode."

"What is this, a 'let's play' or a walkthrough now?" Maxi asked.

"You just changed from using 'chapter' and 'arc' to 'Episode' as if it were a commercial, or a show." Luno noted, "Analysis indicates that this is not what you meant to do. There is a ninety six percent chance that this was a mistake."

"Yeah, there's a one hundred and one percent chance, with a one percent margin of error, that analysis indicates that all of your statistics are getting really annoying." Jayden shot back, "You sound like Fi from… wait." Jayden looked at Oliver, "Can I say the name without getting in trouble? Is it like… copyright or something? Last time we messed with copyright we lost real badly."

"I think you can say the name." Oliver answered, "You just have to note that we don't own them."

"Okay, so yeah." Jayden continued, "You sound like Fi from **Legend of Zelda:Skyward Sword{Property of Nintendo}**. Where did all the statistics come from? In the first chapter you were introduced in, we noted that you usually keep your speech shorter, what happened to that?"

"In the first few chapters you were introduced, you had a much darker character," Luno responded, "Now you're much happier. What happened to that?"

"Do you really prefer dark-minded sad little Jayden?" the boy in question responded, "I think this is a little better." He looked at the camera, "I'm sure all of you readers can agree with me on that one."

"Fair enough," Luno said, "Though I did have a major change in this episode, so this more humorous, statistical side of me is most likely what I was like before the whole golem thing happened."

"Why are we having this argument?" Sushi interrupted them, "We said we wanted to take out Hachimajin in this chapter, right? Maxi, didn't you find his location?"

"I have no idea how you know that because I never said anything of the like." Maxi noted, "But yes. I found him. Here's the problem though, it will take quite a while to get there and back, so we should send a small team up. Maybe two or three people would do; small enough to be easily maneuverable together and manageable, but still enough to be damaging on a major scale, yes?" Maxi nodded with approval as he said so.

"Yes, well to complicate things further, I need others to accompany me back to our original version of this timeline to assist with holding back ASIC. The force we left cannot do it alone. I will need everyone who is not going to fight Hachimajin with me." Jayden added, "I can handle whichever job you need done, just know that there are two that need to get done."

"I will handle Hachimajin." Luno said, his voice calm and unwavering, "I will take someone from this version of the timeline with me. Leave Histoire here to guide me through this, but take everyone else with you to push back ASIC's troops." Jayden considered the plan, then nodded.

"Just remember, I can jump to any of the versions of this timeline we've already been to without the device, so we're not holding up progress." The angel reminded his squad, "Whenever you need to transition versions of the timeline, I can help you do that." Luno's red light shined in the center of his face, and it seemed like he might have been smiling under that metal mask of his.

"You won't be disappointed. I promise."

* * *

Luno stood before everyone in the school courtyard in his human form. Everyone from his original version of the timeline had left to beat back ASIC, save Histoire and himself. Luno had thought this out. "Here's the deal." Luno told them, "The one thing Hachimajin is weak to is creativity. The zombies were the chosen way of taking over due to lack of creativity on Hachimajin's part. If we go at him with everything we've got, then we should be able to manage to take him down. What better way to attack him with creativity than to show him our colours? I for example can have either blue or red on my side." Luno gestured to his shirt when he said 'blue' and then to his hair when he said 'red.' It was true, Luno's human form wore a blue shirt with white sleeves and jeans while his short hair was vibrant red. It was a little confusing, but it never seemed to bother Luno. "Show the world the power of your creativity. They gave us a zombie apocalypse and we gave them a killer movie out of it. Think about it. If you can't figure out your colour…" Luno raised his arms and channeled energy through his palms, creating a red and blue orb of swirling energy in his hands, "channel it through your body. Let the colour show you itself." Everyone did so slowly. After everyone was performing said trick, Luno was pleased to see that he had every colour of the rainbow at his disposal, but unfortunately, he knew he couldn't take everyone with him. However, this did raise his moral for these people to be able to unleash their colour to brighten the world after he left. Famitsu had red, Uzume had orange, Peashy had yellow, Vert had green, Rom had light blue, Tamsoft had indigo, and Neptune had purple. The colours he was going to need most were those close to his, but not exactly his, he didn't need duplicates. After a bit of making decisions, he worked out what he was going to do. Others not included in the rainbow were Ram with pink, Nepgear with magenta, Uni and Noire with grey and black, Blanc with white, Famitsu with a secondary yellow, and Plutia with Iris. "Okay, so I need Uzume and Tamsoft with me for going after Hachimajin, I need Uni, Noire and the Nep sisters on covering any zombies that may arise and try to leave from said battle, and I need everyone else to try and reduce the amount of zombies we currently have on the island. If we can drive that number down, we can probably weaken Hachimajin and make the job easier on ourselves. Is that clear?" Luno received a positive all around nod from the people standing before him. "Good, then if there's nothing left to do but take out the boss, let's take him out!" The CPUs and co cheered before transforming and heading off. Luno donned his own HDD form, which was pretty much just gauntlets, leg guards and a fancy pair of mechanical wings, and took off, flying with runes circling him every which way. After their own transformations, Orange Heart and Tamsoft close behind.

* * *

As they neared the location where Maxi had pinpointed Hachimajin to be, Luno noticed just how many zombies were pouring out. It was a large dome of colour negative energy that seemed to be a rift between two different planes of existence in one space. Regarding the zombies and their numbers, on the other hand, Luno was concerned. If they didn't make an effort to stem the numbers here, then the others might not have been able to handle it. Luno signaled to Uzume and Tamsoft to come closer so he could talk to them.

"Start taking out zombies that are coming out of the rift. I'm gonna delve in and see if I can cap it at the source."

"If that means taking out Hachimajin, then don't try anything too risky. He's supposed to be the most powerful of them all around here, so be careful." Uzume told him, "If anything goes south, then get out. Hachimajin can't leave that rift, so if you can get out alive, don't be afraid to run."

"Running's not really my style." Luno said, then smiled at Uzume through his waves and clouds of magic runes and ancient letters and symbols, "But I'll keep that in mind." Luno watched the two as they took off towards the hordes of zombies and started tearing up the field, and then charged through into the rift to take on the Lord of Zombies.

* * *

Inside the rift was quite a bit different than Luno was expecting. By that, Luno meant that it was hardly different from the outside at all. "Now then, where's this Hachimajin guy at?" Luno suddenly saw the zombie lord up ahead. They were actually two people, female and male at the same time. Luno analyzed them from a distance for a moment, noting that Hachima was the name of the female side while Jin was the name of the male side. They wore a set of golden spiked shoulderpads and a shadowy robe around their body. The ribcage was exposed with a pink gem floating in the center- couldn't Luno just look up Hachimajin? They were the final boss of Blanc vs. Zombies, and while this was a new game, there were indeed pictures of them on the internet. One of the most important details was that Hachimajin had very large claws and very large dual cannons that floated on either side of their body. Luno began to advance steadily, noting that he was not at all afraid of the zombie lord before him. He was ready for it at this point. As Luno got closer, Hachimajin looked up and smiled.

"The hero comes to destroy us?" Hachima seemed to ask.

"LOLOLOL LET HIM TRY." Jin responded. "HE CAN'T DEFEAT US. HE ISN'T EVEN A CPU. GG LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL"

"Gods this guy is annoying." Luno noted mentally.

"SO HUMAN… LOLOLOLOL." Jin started

"Are you ready…?" Hachima followed.

"TO DIIIIIIIIIIEEEE?!" they finished together. Luno took a moment to contemplate this, then raised them a thumbs up without a word. He didn't feel like the situation needed it.

"Ugh…" Jin said, his excitement seemingly extinguished by Luno's lame response, "Let's just get this over with." Luno stood slightly more sideways indicating that he was ready, and the zombie lord and the dark alchemist entered battle.

"Does the human have a weapon?" Hachima asked.

"Doesn't look like it." Jin answered, "I'm feeling honourable. Here, human." A hammer appeared before Luno, resembling Blanc's hammer, but lighter. "The main heroine isn't here to fight us, so use a weapon like hers. It should make this more entertaining." Luno took the weapon in both hands and stood there complacently.

"Actually…?" Hachima noted, "How comfortable are we murdering a little kid?"

"Yeah… especially one that didn't have the sense to bring his own weapon…?" Jin finished. Luno, in response, pulled out a pair of sunglasses, put them on, and raised both middle fingers to the zombie lord.

"Um…?" Hachima stated, confused.

"I'm over it." Jin said. Luno took the hammer back up in his hands again. "NGGGAAAAAAHH!" Hachimajin's twin cannons began to launch a barrage of attacks towards Luno, but they didn't seem to understand that the weapon they given him was just about as strong as their own power could make. In other words, Luno could use the weapon to block any and all damage coming from Hachimajin without fail. Luno didn't even move his legs, whirling the hammer about with one hand, blocking the attacks as they came in, taking absolutely zero damage.

"What the hell…?" Hachima asked quietly. Luno could see where this was going, and felt a bit disappointed. He was finally getting some time to shine, and the boss he'd been given was supposed to be an epic fight. On the other hand, Luno wasn't in any sort of danger at all, and didn't feel very threatened. Luno sensed an attack coming from somewhere far away.

"Heh…" Jin smirked, "No way to see this one coming!" Luno stood sideways now, holding the hammer with both hands as if he were prepping for a baseball swing. Time seemed to slow down as the attack came from behind, but Luno made no attempt to dodge or counter it. He seemed to know exactly what the attack was going to do. Luno started the swing just as the attack would have reached and struck him, but this was no normal attack. A magical bolt with a yellowish tint, it was designed to fool the intended target. As the attack neared the intended target, it would suddenly change direction and attack from the opposite side it came in from. As the attack came around to the front, Luno's hammer was there to meet it, and Luno smacked the magic orb straight at Hachimajin, almost taking the zombie lord's head off in the process. Hachimajin fused their cannons into one and fired a beam at Luno who was no longer there. Confused, Hachimajin was too late to realize that Luno was behind them now, and Luno jumped up, now in golem form, and smashed Hachimajin over the back of the head with the hammer. The blow actually shattered the hammer, leaving the zombie lord stunned for a moment. Luno acted quickly, switching into HDD form and attacking Hachimajin's floating claws with his own claws, striking them out of the sky and tearing them to useless pieces. Luno then jumped back out of the way of Hachimajin's laser, and returned a beam of his own from his share-energy-leaking eye. The beam pierced through Hachimajin's chest gem, causing the zombie lord to stumble back at the loss of its claws, and now a solid chunk of its HP. Hachimajin went to end the fight with a final attack, a much more powerful beam from their solo cannon, but Luno's body became enveloped in a bright blue light, shielding him from the damage. Luno walked forward through the beam attack and grabbed the solo cannon, crushing the barrel and stopping the attack. Luno then uppercutted the front of the barrel, releasing the blue energy field around him as he did so. The resulting blow blew the cannon's barrel upwards, bending the long barrel by a ninety degree angle, preventing it from further use. Hachimajin seemed to know they were beat now. "Alright then… heh…" Jin said disappointedly.

"Make it quick?" Hachima almost seemed to plead. Luno's eye went dark for a moment before he agreed. Luno stepped back and charged the attack thoroughly to ensure this would go as quickly as possible. Luno blasted Hachimajin with his share-energy-beam from his eye, sealing the zombie lord in a crystal of said energy. Luno then stepped forward, took the crystal in his hands, and smashed it to pieces, scattering the crystal and reducing the zombie lord to pixels.

"It pained me to do that." Luno said quietly; now back in his normal human form, "You would have been a worthy opponent if everything I had didn't perfectly oppose yours. I almost regret being so well trained because of it. Then again, you were a villain. You had it coming, turning everyone to zombies. Oh well. Goodbye, Hachimajin." Luno turned and walked back towards the academy, leaving the rift as it sealed behind him. Luno noted several unconscious people lying about on the ground, seemingly returned from their zombie forms. "Yeah, that seems about right." He noted casually. As Luno returned to the academy he wondered what was next briefly, then smiled knowingly. "Suppose there's only one way to really find out."

* * *

Please leave a comment with suggestions, questions, or concerns if you have them, or even if you just want to make a passing remark. I appreciate all comments, so don't be afraid.

* * *

I have a comment, and it's from AIYF: "You're welcome. I'm glad to hear that. Now, dimension hopping and starting off with "Gamicademi". Nice one to start with. I too have Megatagmension Blanc and beat it. It was fun."

Response: Ah yes. Dimension hopping. I plan to have one or two chapters for several Gamindustri's and the like, so yeah. I'm gonna have fun with this when I finally get to it.


	28. Father?

**A/n: A mini chapter of Jayden thinking. I published 27 earlier today, and this is just a little something because it's father's day.**

 **This will probably be just the slightest bit late, but Oh well. Better late than never, and I'm always late anyway.**

 **Happy Father's day of 2016 everybody.**

* * *

Jayden sat in one of the rooms around the academy that had served as their base for the time being. With Hachimajin defeated by Luno and the zombie problem wrapped up, as well as the movie finished and the school saved, Jayden was a bit bored and had nothing to do. Such a situation led to deeper thinking. Jayden knew today was Father's day, a traditional holiday that started on Earth for a child to honour the male parent or parents of the family. Jayden was a bit perplexed by this. He knew how reproduction worked, and that it usually required multiple genders to function. Jayden knew he was no exception to this rule; if Histoire had produced him asexually then Jayden would be an exact identical and genetic duplicate of her. At the same time, he knew Histoire was his mother, but he never actually knew a father. Granted Jayden could have been produced differently, much like a CPU where an excess of shares led to a new CPU being born, the Current CPU(s) serving as one parent, and the Sharicite, or the whim of the people, serving as the other. However, if that was the case, where was Jayden's Sharicite? If Jayden had been created by magic, who was the creator? If Jayden had been created by technology, maybe he was a robot, who was the engineer? Also, Jayden was quite sure he wasn't a robot. Suddenly, Jayden felt warm. Somrthing was squeezing him. Further examination yielded the result that Neptune had sat behind him and had her arms wrapped affectionately around him. Jayden realized that he'd confused himself more than was necessary. The sun had gone down long ago, and Jayden realized just how tired he really was. He helped Neptune out of her chair and headed off to his temporary quarters to sleep. It was late, and he needed some rest more than anything.


	29. Halting the Conquest

**A/N: So I'm gonna note this now, I'm going on vacation just about after I post this, so I'll be out for a week. I've already started work on the next chapter, but I can't promise I'll have it done by next weekend. If not, then I'll get something ready as an apology, so either I will post when I get back next weekend or I'll try and post two things during the following week. With that out of the way, this is...**

 **Paradox, Chapter 29: _Halting the Conquest_**

* * *

The Armored Knight stood strong, his spear across his back, his scarlet armor glistening in the falling light of the day. He waited, knowing that his opponent would be there to do battle soon. He straightened himself, making sure that he was standing as straight as possible for when the Hero came. For just a moment, he closed his eyes. Feeling a slight gust of wind, the Armored Knight opened his eyes. Standing there was a boy equipped with four shields. His smooth black hair seemed to flow slightly in the drifting wind as he stood, his determination evident in his face. The Armored Knight took a moment to consider the Hero's appearance. Even though he presented himself seriously, the Knight could tell that the Hero had further secrets.

"So, you've finally arrived." The Knight noted, "Few People have entered the lair of the Draconic Lord."

The Hero didn't move, short of lightly shifting in place.

"Here to save the Prince, are you?" The Knight inquired further, "The little worm is not fit to rule." The Knight smirked. "I've been waiting for this moment," he continued, "The chance to crush you like the insect you are."

The Hero still didn't move. Was he even facing this way?

"Are you even paying attention to me?" The Knight asked, "I was about to do a badass exposition."

The Hero made no indication that he'd heard the question or the following statement.

"Seriously? Stop ignoring me." The Knight said, getting a bit annoyed, "I worked hard on this speech."

The Hero gazed up at the sky. The Knight realized that the Hero had never actually been listening.

"MOTHER FU-!" The Knight went to yell at the Hero out of annoyance, but didn't anticipate the Hero's reaction speed. In one swift strike, the Hero threw one of his four shields, striking the Knight in the face with the disc.

The Knight recovered quickly and drew his spear, thrusting it towards the Hero, but the target was just out of reach. The Hero flipped back and then lurched forwards, slugging the Knight across the face. It was a primordial and brutal method, but an efficient one nonetheless. The Knight was indeed heavily armored, but the Hero hadn't attacked with anything armor could really defend against. With such a blunt strike, the armor had dented under the stress of the attack. If the Hero had attempted a thrusting or a slashing attack, the armor would have helped, bu the Hero seemed much more well prepared than that. The Knight recovered once more, swinging the head of the spear in a wide arc, forcing the Hero to retreat back a few paces. The Knight stepped forward, advancing where the Hero attempted to retreat, thrusting in towards the Hero again. The Hero crossed his arms over the anticipated impact spot, blocking the attack with the shields on both his arms. The thrust was so forceful, however, that it completely shattered two of the Hero's shields and forced him to stagger back. The Hero seemed unfazed by this and attacked again, launching his left shield at the Knight, then the right shield shortly afterwards. The Knight blocked the first one and took the second in the face. This opened up the way for the Hero to lunge forth and punch him again. Both shields came flying back to the Hero in a wide arc, and the Hero caught them both as he flipped up and backwards, out of the way of the Knight's next attack. The Knight smiled briefly.

"I'm glad to see what a worthy opponent you are." The Scarlet Armored Knight told the Hero, "But I will not be defeated so easily." The Knight threw his spear at the Hero like a javelin, and the Hero managed to block it, but at the cost of another of his shields; the one on his left arm specifically. The Knight laughed then drew a large spiked ball at the end of a chain and began to swing it around his head. The Hero, remaining silent, just like a stereotypical adventure protagonist, discarded his remaining shield and drew a blade made of energy. The blade sprung from his hand as if it had been there the whole time. The Knight laughed again. "I knew you had some secrets about you, but it matters not. This is where you fall!" The Knight launched the ball forward, the Hero leaping over it and latching on as the ball began to return to the Knight. The Knight realized he had made a critical error and let the ball pass him as it swung back. The Hero was launched flying off of the ball into the side of a stone wall. The Hero quickly recovered, shaking himself off, and charging at the Knight. As the Knight launched the ball again, the Hero slipped past it and swung his blade around in a wide slash towards the Knight, but the Knight blocked the blade with the chain he was holding and kicked the Hero back. At the distance the Hero was standing, there was nothing he could do as the ball swung towards him and knocked him flying once more. Having actually been struck by the ball, the Hero flew back into another wall and watched in dismay as his health shrunk into the red. Knowing that he had to end it quickly, the Hero renewed his attack and rushed down the field towards the Knight. The Knight launched the ball and the Hero slipped underneath it this time, then slashed upwards, shattering the chain and rendering the weapon useless. The Knight realized this just a second too late and had no time left to dodge what came next. The Hero jumped and brought his blade down in a Jump Attack, much like a certain Green-clad Hero of Time. The Hero brought the blade down, right at the Knight and- stopped when a small holographic screen showed up between the two, accompanied by Irish Rock Music. "Is that your phone?" the Knight asked.

"I suppose it is." The Hero said, uttering his first words since they'd started. The Hero lightly tapped the 'Answer' button, "Hi, Mom."

"Is that seriously your ringtone, Jayden?" The Knight inquired further, "This is the first time I'm hearing it, and how did you pick this?"

"I think an explanation can come later, Maxi." Jayden replied, "Lemme get off the phone first. What's up, Mom?"

"I was just calling to let you know that dinner is just about ready." Histoire's voice was audible on the other end, "Neptune and I did the cooking and Sushi and Yuuki helped with gathering ingredients and preparations. We made Stir-Fry. Does that sound good to you?"

"That sounds great," Jayden answered, "So long as you mean our Neptune, not… not the school girl version, she can't cook."

"Yeah, none of them can." Maxi added, "How'd it wind up that you, Uzume, and Uni were the only ones in this version of the timeline that were capable of producing edible food?"

Suddenly, the Dragon Lord emerged from the cave, the Prince following close behind. "What is taking you guys so long?" The black haired Prince asked, "And what are you talking about?"

"We've been waiting for like, Forty minutes." The Blonde Dragon Lord added, "I know you had to get here, Jay, but I figured you would've beaten Maxi or lost by now." It was at that moment that the Dragon Lord noted the Phone at Jayden's ear. "Ah."

"Yeah, it's dinner time, Ollie." Jayden told the Dragon Lord, "Also, that goes for you too, other me," He told the prince, "Mom and Co. made dinner for all of us."

"Oh, really?" SG Jayden inquired, "That's awfully nice of them. I could've made something really quickly."

"Yes, but you seemed like you were having fun," Histoire said on the other end of the line, "Even if you're not my son from my version of our timeline, you're still my son from a different version, so that means I'll take care of you too while I'm here."

SG Jayden's face turned slightly red, "Oh, okay then?" he said, not sure whether to be confused, flattered, or some combination of both. "I suppose we'd best be logging out then."

"Certainly," Maxi responded, "I could go for some food." Maxi's avatar dissolved into pixels, quickly followed by the other three boys. It was time for dinner.

(Line)

Jayden gathered his things into his inventory, then turned around and shook his duplicate's hand. "Well, me. It's been fun. Take care of things around here so that when I come back we don't have to mop up a ton of zombies again, yeah?"

"Certainly," his duplicate responded, "I'll be eagerly awaiting your return. You know how to contact me if you need me, and…" the school guy pulled out a metallic mug with the Planeptune Logo etched into the front of it. "I noted how you liked using this while you were here. Take it with you as a reminder of all the stuff we did, yeah?"

"But I have everything you taught me to-"

"SHHSHSHSHUSH!"

"?" Jayden was quickly cut off by his duplicate, leading to a wide array of confusion.

"The readers aren't supposed to know about that, yet." SG Jayden said, "Just take the mug, will ya?"

"Right." Jayden said, smirking slightly, "I'll do that." Jayden stashed the mug in his inventory. It had something in it, probably something good, but he ignored that for the moment being. "I've gotta get going then." Jayden hurried down the hall to where Histoire was, the device for opening the way to new versions of the timeline was primed and readied. Histoire seemed to be having a discussion with the Victory Duo about what their next move was. "Ready for the next version of the timeline, guys?"

"Actually," Sushi noted, "Yuuki and I will be heading back to the original version of the timeline to assist in beating back and holding off ASIC. We saw what happened when we'd left for the first time, so Yuuki and I are going to help prevent that."

Jayden nodded slowly, then offered Sushi a friendly fist-bump and gave Yuuki a goodbye hug, "Best of luck to the both of you." Jayden took a both of their hands and sent them back to where they'd came from. He sighed slightly. "What a shame… I liked that Sushi guy, you know? He was like a brother to me, and Yuuki was kind of like the adorable, yet insanely powerful swordmistress of a little sister I've always wanted… Is that weird?"

"I don't think so?" Histoire asked, rather than replied, "Think about it this way, though. When we're done here, then we can go visit them again. On the other hand, we're all ready to go when you are." Jayden nodded as the rest of them, Maxi, Oliver, Neptune, and Luno entered the room, ready to leave.

"Let's not waste time then. We've a lot to get done." Jayden said. "Let's do this shit."

The group gathered around the device as the energy unleashed itself, teleporting them to a new version of the timeline. This time, however, things didn't go quite so well. Jayden quickly realized that they were getting separated. Jayden made use of his airbrush ring for the first time in forever, grabbing onto the surrounding group members with ink cables to hold them in place so they'd at least wind up in the same version of the timeline. He held on with all of the strength he could muster, and managed to hold on just long enough for the version of the timeline to solidify around them. Then, the ink cables snapped, and Jayden felt his body go flying.

(Line)

Jayden lay on the ground for a few moments before pushing himself into a standing position. Scanning the area to see if he could sense anyone else, Jayden found that he was incapable of doing so, meaning he was too far away, or he'd failed in keeping them all in the same version of the timeline. Jayden took a quick inventory of himself and noted that Zhen, Fidelity, and the Airbrush ring were missing. I chuckled slightly at how flustered he was.

"Don't worry, it's not nearly as bad as you think it is." I told him, "Have a look at your arms, see these golden gauntlets?" Jayden took my advice and had a look at his arms, "Those are what Zhen and Fidelity look like in this version of this timeline. Also, here." I handed him the airbrush ring, "I know you don't use it much, but you dropped this on the way in. I'd prefer not to waster a thousand or so words on you wasting time, looking for a ring." Jayden nodded and took the ring, slipping it back on his finger. "So these are just basically retractable arm blades."

"How the heck do I activate them?" he asked me. I drew a similar pair of gauntlets on my own arms, then lightly shaded them in. To Jayden's surprise, I now had on a working pair of gauntlets that matched his. "How did you…?"

"See? This is why you have to start using the airbrush ring." I told him, "Gotta be creative about how you do things, otherwise things will get ahead of you, then you'll come across a challenge you can't solve. Then what are you gonna do?"

"Complain to you." Jayden answered, "That's what I normally do. I'll do it in between chapters, but that's what I'll do. Then you use the lady in my head to give me a cool new ability. Speaking of which, when do I recover the ability to control time?"

"Later." I replied lamely, "If I give you back that ability now, then it breaks some of the things you have to do later in this chapter, and I don't feel like rewriting and planning out this whole thing. I've already started on chapter thirty one, I'm not rewriting the parts of this chapter, next chapter, and the one afterwards."

"Wow, thirty chapters already… huh?" Jayden noted in awe, "Anyway, how do I use these?"

"They're mostly magic based," I explained to him, "So like this." I rotated my wrists and made a motion with both hands as if I were pumping a shotgun. Two blades extended from either of my forearms into usable blades. "You already know how to use these because Histoire taught you how to use all sorts of different weapons back in between chapters three and four."

"You really set up the whole 'wielding any sort of weapon' thing didn't you?" Jayden noted, extending his arm blades. "Though yes, I do remember something like that. Anyway, what now?"

"Now you advance the plot." I told him, "Get going then. Oh, and have fun with the new addition to your arsenal." I patted Jayden on the back and walked off in the other direction.

"That's putting it vaguely," Jayden noted, "What do you mean by… that?" When Jayden turned around to ask me the question, he found that I was no longer there. Ten points to 24 for the mysterious/badass exit.

(Line)

"New addition to my arsenal?" Jayden asked himself, "Was that a passive aggressive comment on the airbrush ring, or was he talking about something actually new?" Jayden took inventory of his items one more time, noting a new item that he didn't care to assess the purpose of. After regaining his bearings, Jayden noted that he still couldn't sense any of his other party members in the immediate or extended vicinity. That would probably raise complications later. Jayden took a survey of his surroundings and noted that he was in some sort of Virtua Forest remake, just like he normally was when first landing in a new Gamindustri. Granted, this wasn't Gamindustri, it was something else, just like how the previous one had been Gamacademi. Jayden figured this one was probably more like Gam… company or something? Jayden suddenly realized that this version of the timeline felt familiar, almost as if he'd been here before. He wondered why for just a moment before continuing onwards in the direction he was facing, hoping that he was calculating correctly and that he would eventually wind up in Planeptune.

In a few minutes, sure enough, Jayden was standing outside the Planeptune Basilicom. "The Deity of Sin has already awoken and her powers are growing at an alarming rate." Kei, Lastation's Oracle, said, "Even so, sacrifice is not a viable method. We will not seek out that blade, we will not kill one of our one to meet a threat. Now then, I will ask once more, what are we going to do?" Jayden tapped into his knowledge of the franchise. I'd told him a lot of things between chapters. Jayden quickly recognized the dialogue of the Conquest ending and a shiver went down his spine. He wasn't going to have a repeat on his hands, even if this wasn't his version of the timeline. All of the CPUs, Makers, and Oracles were gathered, but Neptune and Histoire were missing.

"What if we gather all the Shares of Gamcompani and focus them into Planeptune?" Nepgear suggested. Jaws dropped around the room.

"The entire world's Shares?!" Noire protested, "Nepgear, do you even know what you're saying?"

"If we do that, then I can fight the Deity of Sin alone." Nepgear explained.

"That's not an option," Uni shot her down, "You'd crush the other nations and leave them no chance to save themselves."

"But this way, no one will have to die," Nepgear explained further, "Isn't that what Jayden wanted?" The room dropped silent as Nepgear said this. Uni looked like she wanted to slug Nepgear across the face for suggesting something like that. Instead, Uni settled for a smack, sending Nepgear reeling backwards slightly. No one made any objection to Uni's attack, not even Nepgear. She seemed to know that she'd taken that last comment too far.

"Need I remind you that Jayden was killed in battle against your OWN CORRUPTED SISTER? Would we even be in this situation if she hadn't been so damn stupid? Seriously, has Neptune ever done anything right?" Uni spat.

"I wouldn't know," Nepgear replied sheepishly, "She was killed in that battle too. I never really met her. I was a baby when that happened."

Blanc put on hand on her shoulder, "We understand that Nepgear, but what you suggest isn't a valid option. No one would die at first, but in the anarchy and chaos of the dying nations that followed, you might as well let the deity continue the way she is."

Something about that struck Jayden the wrong way. He was already dead in this version of the timeline? Why was Uni so defensive of his memory? Suddenly Jayden realized what this was. This was his timeline's version of the timeline he'd been trapped in for chapters four through seventeen. He and Neptune had been killed in the battle where the Deity had seized Neptune's body. Was this where the corrupted Neptune had gone at the end of that? Did Jayden have that problem on his hands again? That same chill went down his spine as he listened to what came next.

"We might as well look for the sword, Kei." Cave suggested. "Even if we don't use it's *ahem…* special ability, it might still prove to be a more powerful weapon than what we have now." Kei sighed.

"Very well," The business woman said, "Seek out the blade, but let us form a plan first."

"A well-developed plan is the key to any victory," Mina, Lowee's Oracle, added, "A splendid Idea, Kei."

"Loathe as I am to admit it, having histoire and Jayden here would have been helpful." Kei noted, "Histoire was the best of us. She didn't deserve to die, especially not at the hands of her own CPU."

"Very true." Chika, Leanbox's Oracle, added, "Jayden used to dabble in plan-making yes?"

"Yes, and most of Histoire's most brilliant theories and plans were created by the two of them as a team." Mina told her, "Jayden was a powerful fighter, and the Hero of this world, but he was also a brilliant thinker. For a ditzy as he came off, he was incredibly knowledgeable, and was known to talk to the author of the fiction when he needed assistance. We cannot rely on him anymore though. We must fight for ourselves."

"Still though," Kei noted, "It would be nice to have either of them around to ask advice from. Jayden's plans were much better than I could ever hope to achieve."

"Why don't you just ask me, then?" Jayden asked her. Every head in the room turned towards the boy, jaws dropping, double-takes being made, surprise evident in the face of everyone present. "Hoi."

Uni was the first to act, throwing her arms around Jayden, "Brother!" she screamed, "I can't believe you're back!" Jayden held her up, but eventually set her back on her own feet.

"Baby steps, Uni." Jayden said while holding his hands up, "I just got here, and I have to say, before you get excited, I'm not staying long, but I am gonna help you fix this issue. Also, for clarification, I don't think I'm nearly as brilliant as you're making me seem. Also, I have no memory of this world, short of what happened right before when I fought Neptune. Can somebody explain things for me?"

"Um…" Uni's face had flushed red, "well… You were like my older brother. Even though Histoire was your mom, you'd still come over to visit me all the time. Whenever Noire was busy, or I just needed someone to talk to, you were always there for me. You were like that for all of us, I guess… I was just the one who needed you the most. You always told me that there would come a day when you couldn't help me anymore. I guess that day just came a bit sooner than you thought, huh?"

"I suppose, just remember, I'm not staying, and I'm probably quite a bit different than you would remember." Jayden noted, "But to be honest, I may not be your Jayden at all. This may not be the timeline I'm thinking of, I'm pulling at strings here."

"You always did have a way of getting into trouble," Kei said, "though it's good to see you again, son."

"Son. . . ?" Jayden repeated, "Explanation please."

"You were almost like another part of the Lastation family, even if Histoire was your mother; you only ever really talked tactics and not much else." Kei told him, "At least that's how it went in our timeline." Noire, having recovered from her shock, tackled him next.

"You, IDIOT!" she shrieked, "Do you have ANY idea how worried we all were?"

"I have some formation of an idea, but at the current moment, that doesn't seem relevant." Jayden told her, "What's this I hear about seeking out a legendary blade? Did I arrive just in time for the exciting part?" he asked.

"Yes, I'd like you and a team of a few others to go into the depths of LAN Castle and seek out the blade we need." Kei told him, "Reporting to me for missions just like always… it feels nice. Anyways, pick your team and head out, the sooner you come back the better. The Deity is growing in power. End her reign before it can begin.

Jayden nodded and turned to the crowd of people, "Alright, so who are my volunteers?" everyone raised their hands. Jayden whistled sharply. " _Riiiiiiiiiiiight_ …" he noted, "Alright…" Jayden eventually wound up picking Uni, Noire, Nepgear, Vert, 5pb/Lyrica, Rom, Ram, Cave, and Red. That should fill out every position he needed. With that, Jayden turned and headed off, promising those left behind that they'd share other adventures.

(Line)

It was a few minutes later that they arrived at LAN Castle. Jayden knew the above part like the back of his hand, and knew the below ground part well enough to know where they needed to go. As such, the mission progressed smoothly enough until they came upon the chamber where the blade was held. A dark, flame-like aura veiled the blade. Noire went to pull the blade out of the stone it was in, but quickly yelped and pulled her hand back.

"Don't touch it!" Noire cried out, "Damn!" Jayden had a look at her HP, noting that she'd dropped into the yellow danger area just from the momentary touch.

"Okay…" Jayden said cautiously, "Who else here wields a sword?" he asked, "Noire? Not her. Gear? There's you. Um… we didn't bring Falcom… and she's just a DLC character anyway…"

"I'll try, just cover me, okay?" Nepgear told him. Jayden nodded as he used small drawn circles to heal Noire with his airbrush ring. Oh finally. He's taking my advice. Jayden looked at the camera.

"Oh, shut up." He said bluntly, "It's convenient."

Nepgear touched the blade, then quickly pulled her hand off. "It didn't burn me…" Nepgear firmly grabbed the handle and pulled the blade from the ground with a solid yank. The blade's dark aura dispersed after she'd pulled it.

"Lovely, now then, may I see it? You're gonna have to hold it for me." Jayden requested. Nepgear held out the blade for him to examine. Jayden's spectrum cycling eyes settled on the colour orange briefly as he examined the weapon. "I see. I'll need a friend of mine to have a look at this." Nepgear nodded and stashed the sword in her inventory. " **[** _ **Gehaburn**_ **]** , huh?"

As they walked, Uni occasionally glanced up at him. After a while, Jayden took notice of it and asked about it. "Huh?! Oh… um… what you were saying, uh… you really don't remember anything?"

"Well, that's not true, I remember certain things." Jayden told her as they walked, the other members eagerly listening as well. "Well here's what I _do_ remember. . . ." Jayden gave them a shorter version of what had transpired between chapter one and chapter twenty eight, efficiently filling them in on how the story had gone so far.

"So you really can talk to the author, huh?" Ram asked. This version of the timeline had the twins a bit older, maybe about the same age as Uni and Nepgear, "Wow. That's actually pretty neat."

"How cool…" Rom added.

Cave seemed troubled, "Your story bothers me somehow." Cave noted, "There are things that were never taught to you that you somehow still know, and who is this voice in your head? She seems too important to gloss over. She called you her one and only son in Chapter seventeen. Wouldn't that make her Histoire?" she asked.

"No, it's not Histoire, it's someone else who thinks she's my mom." Jayden told her, "I'm telling you everything I can remember, and that's ever since I was a kid, so there's not much else that could've happened. I can't think of anyone behind that voice at the moment, so it must just be someone I have yet to meet."

"I can't understand how you put this off so easily." Cave noted, "There are clearly some very important details that you still need."

"Yeah, whatever, Cave." Jayden said, waving his hand dismissively, "It's not really concerning to me." He eased up, putting his hands behind his head as they walked out. As easily as he put it off at the moment, the ideas from the previous day popped up in his head, putting him off slightly. It was just the other day that he had been thinking about how he came into being and whether or not Histoire could really have produced him herself. He'd convened all of this to them as well, trusting them just like he would trust any of his close allies. Soon enough he'd sweat the details. Just not now.

(Line)

Introductions were had and made when Jayden got back. The rest of his party had finally made their way to the Planeptune Basilicom while they'd been out. Jayden had Nepgear show the newly acquired blade to Maxi. Maxi had a look at it and winced at the 'special effect' when he saw what it was.

"We're… we're not doing that, right?" Maxi asked. Jayden shook his head.

"Absolutely not. That's why I wanted you to see if you could do anything to the blade since you do blacksmith work. You're the one who made Fidelity for me." Jayden told him, "How's about it?" Maxi stared at the blade for a while, his orange eyes scanning the blade as he went. It was at that moment that Jayden remembered that Maxi had cybernetic contact lenses that allowed him to literally scan and appraise things, so it made sense what he was doing.

"Okay…" Maxi said after a while, "I'm gonna need some more materials. I don't suppose you could go and get those for me, could you?"

"I can," Jayden replied, "Though I don't suppose you have something that can hold something with a spike aura, can you? This thing has a dark aura on it that does more damage than you can probably sustain while blacksmithing it."

"I have some special gloves." Maxi answered easily, "So if you don't mind, Nepgear . . ." Maxi equipped said gloves and held out his hand, ". . . please hand me Gehaburn."

"Here you are." Nepgear said and handed him the sword, "Be careful with it. I wouldn't want you to get hurt because of it."

"Certainly." Maxi replied, "I'll keep that in mind. Now then, this dungeon I need you to go to has the material at the end." Maxi pulled up a holographic map as he explained this, "the first part is easy and so is the boss. The boss drops the crystal I need." Jayden nodded to indicate that he understood, "Good, now right before the boss and the end of the actual dungeon is an optional part. If you kill the optional boss then you get some interesting new equipment that might help. I think it's a new set of shoulder guards or something. It should give you more mana and allow you to heal better."

Jayden nodded slowly, "I could use those…" Jayden noted, thinking about all of the spells he could cast with some more mana. "What's the catch here?"

"Well the optional boss is a dragon, and the dragon's floor is littered with eggs. You so much as touch those things and little dragonlings will come out of them." Maxi explained, "They're not so bad, but they come in packs and can quickly become more threatening than you think they will. Form a good strategy if you want to take them on. I'll mark the spots on your map, and I'll see you later when you've got the crystal."

(Line)

Jayden stood at the end of the first part of the dungeon with Oliver, Rom, Ram, Luno in his human form, MarvelousAQL, Tekken, IF, and Compa. "Okay, go ahead and come up with a strategy, Ollie." Jayden told Oliver, "I'm gonna make some food first, and I'll meet up with you right before we go inside, kay?"

"Alright, go ahead then." Oliver told him. Jayden walked off just around the corner to where the ground was still burning from a fire spell Luno had unleashed. Jayden rekindled the fire and began to fry some chicken. "So then, this kind of thing has given me trouble before, and I assume it's not too different from any of you." Everyone nodded. "Does anyone need anything off this guy, or can we bypass him entirely and head straight for the material?"

"I believe Jayden said he needed something from this guy." MarvelousAQL noted with a smile, pointing at the corner Jayden had just rounded.

"Oh… h-he needs the… the shoulders? The Reverent Shoulders?" Oliver asked, "Doesn't he just regen everything? Doesn't he usually do close combat?"

"Yeah, but that'll help him heal better," Ram explained, "He'll have more mana. Also, more mana means more spell capability. Most of the good spells cost a ton of mana just for one use. Regen won't help if you don't have enough to begin with."

Oliver sighed a deep, heavy, exasperated sigh, "Gods… Okay…? Well, what we'll do: I'll run in first and trigger all the eggs so we can blast them down with AoE Spells and skills. I'll use **Panic Shout** in order to scatter some of the dragonlings so we don't have to take on too many at once. Luno, if things get too hectic, I'm gonna need you to use a scatter spell too to scatter them again. When he's done, of course, I'm gonna need Marvy to do the same thing. Uh… we're gonna need a lot of healing, Rom, Ram, Luno, you're our mages here, Compa, you too. I'm also gonna need mages on AoE, otherwise we'll be in for quite a fight if we don't knock all of them out quick. Um… That's about all… we're just waiting on Jayden then. What do you think, Luno? Can you give me a number crunch real quick?"

"Uuuuuuuh…" Luno started thinking, "Yeah gimme a sec… I'm coming up with Ninety-two-point-three-three, repeating of course, percentage of success."

"Okay, that's better than I've normally got. What's that other like, eight percent for?" Oliver asked in order to account for everything.

"That's if we fail to follow the plan and things go sour." Luno notified him, "failure to follow the plan drops chance of survival to thirty-two-point-three-three."

"Okay, well that's a lot better than we normally have." Oliver noted. Suddenly, the group noted that several fried chicken items popped into their inventories.

"Alright guys, I'm back!" Jayden yelled as he came barreling around the corner and into the boss room, " **Let's do this!** _ **LEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JENKIIIIIIIIIINS!**_ "

Oliver blinked twice, "I'm not hallucinating am I? He was actually that stupid?"

"Yup, you saw the dummy go," Ram said, obviously pissed, "Don't just stand there, let's go after him!"

"Oh right!" Oliver said, turning and bolting into the room, "Try and stick to the-! Plan…?" There was a trail of bright pixels left behind as the dragonlings all burst into pixels after having been defeated.

"Whatever he's doing is working," IF told them, "So keep going behind him! If he needs backup, then we're the backup!" Oliver charged further in and was greeted by a hilarious sight. Jayden was spinning in circles at vigorous speeds, slashing anything around him to pieces as he sped around the room, hacking and slashing the dragonlings to pieces and even cutting up the boss as he passed him each time he went back and forth. Luno snickered slightly from the sight and Marvy did her best to hide her giggles.

After a solid ten minutes, Jayden came back to them, sporting a bright silver pair of goggles on his head. "Got the item." He said with a smug grin on his face. His clothes were in tatters, his shoes were dirty, and his gauntlets were caked with dirt. His hoodie, formerly white and grey, was now dark grey, brown and black. All that remained intact on him were his pants, which had been shredded to shorts, and his undershirt, which still had a large hole in the side. Whatever damage Jayden had actually taken to his person had already healed off. "Let's grab that crystal for Maxi and go. I could use a glass of water and a snack after that."

"Well, we've got chicken." Oliver said, holding up a piece of the fried fowl. Oliver took a bite out of the drumstick and handed another piece to Jayden, accompanied by a bottle of water. "Have your break and let's be on the way back. I'd like to be home before night falls."

(Line)

Jayden placed the magenta-coloured crystal on the table and looked up at Maxi. Maxi noted his new goggles and shredded clothes. "The hell happened to you? Is that the item the boss dropped?" Maxi asked, pointing up at the goggles on Jayden's head.

"Sure is." Jayden said with a prideful smile, "I got them myself. No assistance necessary on that front."

"You got them yourself." Maxi repeated, "Of course you did. Why'd I expect any different? Just hand me that crystal so I can get to work on this thing. I'm probably gonna have an all-nighter tonight, but that's my choice. You can rest easy."

"Oh thanks, Maxi." Jayden said, "Gotta say, I am a bit tired. I'm gonna take you up on that and head off to bed. Don't push yourself. If the Deity really has revived, then I'm probably gonna need your help for that."

"Yeah, yeah," Maxi filled in, "Really, it's no trouble." Jayden headed off to bed, leaving Maxi alone with Gehaburn. Maxi picked up the crystal and suspended it in midair so he could examine it. "What I wouldn't give for Sancho to be here… Kupo would be nice too…" Maxi muttered to himself. "That's fine though. Working on my own is fine too."

"Yeah, if you don't count your psychopathic side." Maxi told himself, "That's something to account for. Granted it doesn't really come out in this fiction because this is rated T, not M, and I can't get away with the level of violence I usually have here, so that's gonna have to chill until later."

"Of course, maybe my more intellectual side is a bit better." Maxi replied, "The smarts are going to help me more than the strength on this side." He suggested, "I don't think I've ever really had an issue with power, have I?"

"Not yet, though usually something like that happens later." Maxi told himself, "You'll have to wait a bit, but it'll happen."

"If it happens during the 'Later' part, then we're there now." Maxi corrected himself, "Seriously, we're twenty nine chapters in. Later is now." Maxi came to an agreement with himself.

"Though killing everything is fun too." Maxi paused at that notion. Maxi looked at the blade, realizing that the voice had come from it, rather than himself.

"Did I ask you?" Maxi asked, "I'm just making you better, I didn't ask for commentary while doing so."

"That's fair enough. I can wait." Gehaburn replied, "I was taught manners. I can be patient if you say so."

Maxi hesitated, "You know, for a demon sword, you're awfully cooperative." He told Gehaburn, "Especially with an ability like yours."

"It wasn't my choice, that ability," Gehaburn noted, "It's true, I hate CPUs, but it's not like it was my choice to make murder my strong suit. I suppose being made a sword doesn't help that, does it? Not my choice, but now that it's been chosen for me, I have no choice but to be the best at what I do to survive. Though I suppose my wielder is a problem, but that's not my choice either."

"Nepgear?" Maxi asked, "Is it because she has CPU blood that you want, or is it something else? Not everyone speaks blades like I do. I guess I owe it to you to listen."

"It's not the whole CPU blood thing. I don't mind that much." Gehaburn told him, "But she's not… an optimal wielder, hm? She's unstable. Her power isn't balanced, and it's unbalanced against me, not for me. Also, she's good with a sword, but she could be better. What about that other kid? Did you call him Jayden? I've heard of him before. He's a hero and a master of all weapons. I'd like to see that."

"I guess you'll see it soon enough." Maxi told him, "We'll be fighting the Deity of Sin together soon enough, so you'll see it then."

"I see…" Gehaburn said complacently, "I wonder where my sister blade is." The second statement came out of nowhere and threw Maxi for a loop. Even without the added CPU blood strength, Gehaburn was one of the finest and most powerful blades he'd ever seen. Gehaburn had a sister blade?

"Sister Blade?" Maxi asked, "That sounds interesting, not to mention important."

"Yeah, not to us at the moment though." Gehaburn noted.

"Not at the moment?" Maxi inquired further, "Care to elaborate?"

"Here's the deal," Gehaburn explained, "My sister can only be wielded when you're already wielding me. Nepgear doesn't have the skill or dexterity necessary for dual-wielding, let alone dual-wielding _us_. She can barely swing me around as is. If she tried wielding both of us at once she'd probably burn up. I can't choose who to burn and who not to burn with my aura, and I can confidently say that I would burn the hell out of her hands if she tried something like that. Still not as bad as that other girl who tried."

"Noire?" Maxi confirmed.

"Sounds about right." Gehaburn stated, "She was too arrogant about this all. She would've been too full of herself for having been the one to wield me. I wasn't going to have that. Demon Sword or not, I have my modesty." Maxi nodded slowly as he worked the crystal into the blade. "Do you know what that crystal does to me?"

"Can't say I do." Maxi said, "Only that this crystal upgrades weapons beyond what they normal can be. If I upgrade you beyond what you normally can be, then I've got a blade worthy of a god."

"A blade worthy of a god…" Gehaburn noted quietly, "I like the sound of that, Maxi. Thank you." Gehaburn took a moment, as if analyzing what the crystal was doing. "I suppose you're right." Gehaburn noted, "This crystal… it's got a lot of share energy in it."

Maxi paused, "Is that bad? Do shares mess with how you work? You are an Anti-CPU blade after all."

"No worries," Gehaburn noted, "Part of my components are Viral and Anti-Share crystals, but this seems to be a positive influence. I can't tell for sure at the moment, but we'll know when we're done here. Just be careful. One wrong move and you may bring back the demon used to create me."

Maxi flinched, "Duly noted. I'll not do that." He said, moderately concerned, "Is there any sure-fire way of avoiding that?"

"You barely have a chance of triggering such in the first place." Gehaburn noted, "It's not likely it will happen. Continue as you were, I just emphasize caution is all." Maxi proceeded with caution, eventually fully fusing the crystal into Gehaburn's blade. Maxi reached over to Gehaburn's handle, then hesitated. "The Aura burn effect is by choice, remember?" he noted, "Go ahead. Let's see what you've accomplished." Maxi picked the blade up and had a look at the new properties.

"You're stats are certainly better." Maxi noted, "Anything you can feel that I can't see?" Gehaburn went dead silent for a moment as if checking to see if anything was new. Suddenly the blade lifted itself from Maxi's hand and gave itself a swing.

"This is new." Gehaburn noted, holding himself up. Maxi made no attempt to defend himself or even drop into a defensive position. "It seems you have made me better, Maxi. Congratulations. You were right."

"Yes…" Maxi noted, "this is quite new to me. A sword that can both move and speak on its own is quite impressive."

"Yes, you're telling me." Gehaburn noted, "Not ten minutes ago I was completely immobile unless moved by a wielder. This is some interesting progress, but we should probably keep it a secret for the moment being." Gehaburn offered his handle back to Maxi, and Maxi took it without hesitation.

"Why do you say that?" Maxi asked, "I think everyone would be impressed to hear what we've accomplished here, Gehaburn."

"You're right, just as always," Gehaburn noted, "But for the sake of explanation, perhaps it would be best to hold off, at least until a better moment. Take my advice on this?"

"If you say so," Maxi replied, "You were patient with me, so I can reciprocate." Gehaburn settled himself on the table. "I'm gonna get some rest for tomorrow. See ya." Gehaburn lightly buzzed to indicate a positive response. Maxi smiled to himself as he headed off.

(Line)

It was early in the morning when Oliver woke to the sound of blades clashing. Oliver sprang up out of bed and headed outside to see what it was, getting prepared to face the day at some point during the transition. Oliver emerged onto the balcony above the courtyard where Nepgear was busy training with Jayden and the other CPUs and candidates. Even some of the makers were training. Nepgear and Jayden were going at each other with occasionally additional attacks from the outside to keep them on their toes. Jayden slipped backwards, then danced back again, his arm blades extended and blocking attacks from all angles. Nepgear, thinking she'd found a hole Jayden's defense, thrusted Gehaburn forward to see if she could land a hit. Jayden jumped upwards and did a backflip off a Gehaburn's blade. Oliver smirked as he realized what Jayden was doing. He'd seen Jayden pull that one before. When Jayden was up in midair, Jayden lashed out downwards, attacking with a drill-like motion with both blades together. The attack was powerful enough that it knocked Gehaburn from Nepgear's hand. To Jayden's surprise Gehaburn never hit the ground. Instead, Gehaburn picked himself up from where he left Nepgear's hand and slashed at Jayden. Jayden flipped backwards to avoid Gehaburn's attack and braced himself.

"Nepgear?" Jayden asked, "Why is your new sword fighting on its own?" Jayden was ready to fight the blade, but wanted a reason, or something he could use to deduct a weakness.

"Why are you asking me?!" Nepgear cried, "I have no idea what the goodness is happening! Be careful, Jayden!" Jayden went to defend himself from the blade's next attack when he realized where Gehaburn was aiming.

Jayden lunged in front of Noire as Gehaburn's blade came down. Jayden blocked Gehaburn with both of his arm blades and launched him back. Noire shrieked slightly as she suddenly was able to process what was happening. Jayden advanced on Gehaburn and slashed out, smashing his arm blades into the blade of the Demon Sword. First from the left, then two from the right, then from the left again, then with both together in a slashing X, Jayden unleashed a non-stop onslaught on the Demonic Blade. At long last, Jayden prepared to end it. Even if this was his best shot at taking on the Deity of Sin successfully, Jayden had no intention of using such risky tactics. Jayden sprang up high in the air and crashed back down, spinning and unleashing a drill attack once more on the opposing blade. The attack connected, forcing the blade to the ground. Jayden threw the blade towards the wall and charged to shatter it to pieces when the blade spun around. Jayden hesitated for a moment. Instead of facing the sharp end of the blade, Jayden was looking at the handle.

 **Gehaburn had handed himself to Jayden.**

Jayden took the blade after a moment or two, noting that the aura of the blade didn't burn him like it had burned Noire. A deep, slightly scratchy voice could be heard in his mind for just a moment. "Pleasure to be working with you, hero." Jayden could tell it was Gehaburn's voice, but did he really need another sword? Jayden already had Fidelity and Zhen, both of which he was fully used to using. Gehhaburn was a bit different. Jayden disregarded this and looked over towards Nepgear.

"I have several questions." Jayden said, "The first and foremost of which being why the sword can move and speak."

Maxi stepped forward, "It's the crystal," Maxi told him, "The crystal removed most of the barriers on the blade, so now Gehaburn is nothing short of a perfect weapon."

"If you say so…?" Jayden answered, "Though I would've preferred less of the whole 'almost killing everyone' thing, you know?"

Maxi shrugged, "I mean, if you say so? I personally thought that bit was kind of cool. It's like you don't even have to get up, the sword does the killing for you."

Jayden looked at him, "I definitely say so. Please tell us the next time you want to do something like this?"

Maxi waved a hand dismissively, "Yeah, sure," he said casually, "Why not? Just one more step to throw onto the end of the process."

"Yes, a rather important one if you ask me." Oliver said as he walked up and smacked Maxi upside the back of the head. "Please consult me before you go off and become psychotic again? I'd like to be the first one to know and assist in the prevention." Maxi rubbed the back of his head, but nodded obediently, "Right then, let's all head back inside, shall we? You all seem rather tired from training."

"Oh certainly!" Vert spoke up, "I brought a game that we can all take turns playing. We can play as long as you all like."

"First I would appreciate it if you would stop by and talk to me, Jayden." Cave noted, stopping him as he went to walk inside. "I have some questions to ask you regarding some things I have been looking into."

"I don't mind." Jayden said easily, "I'll meet up with you as soon as I wash my hands and stuff. We were just outside and swinging weapons and stuff; who knows where as sword as old as this has been, right?"

Cave nodded and headed inside, sitting herself down in one of the chairs. She began thinking about how she was going to phrase these questions. She knew that wording this incorrectly would only lead to more questions, specifically ones that she didn't have answers to, and ones that she didn't want answers to. Jayden came back in ad had a seat across the table from her. The others were just on the opposite end of the room from the both of them, sitting in front of the television. "Okay, Jayden…" Cave said quietly, "I'm going to be frank with you."

"How can you be Frank when you're Cave?" Jayden asked with a smile. Cave sighed and the smile vanished from Jayden's face. "Sorry, I made that joke already."

"Would it make more sense if I told you I was going to put this rather bluntly?" Cave asked, opting for better vocabulary.

"I suppose," Jayden said, holding back a smile, "But it made sense before. I was just joking, sorry."

"It's fine." Cave said, hurriedly. She didn't want this conversation to last any longer than it had to. Jayden could see the anxiety in her eyes and tensed up slightly. "I need you to remind yourself that I am not attacking you in any way, shape, or form. I am only asking this question because it necessitates the attention of both of us." Jayden lowered his head slightly and raised his eyebrows by just a degree in a sort of 'go on' motion. "I don't think you're telling me everything."

Jayden raised an eyebrow, "Sorry, but I don't follow." He said, slightly perturbed, "please elaborate on the subject."

"The story you've given me is missing some crucial pieces." Cave continued, "Where did you learn to use a firearm? Histoire has told me she never taught you to use them. Also, when did you learn how to fly? Your previous forms never had this ability, yet you recount the experience as having no time to learn how to fly, but being able to do so anyway, even carrying several people with you at times. I'm going to trust you, and I'm not going to press the issue, but I need you to tell me, and please, for the love of the True Goddess, answer truthfully and honestly…" Jayden braced himself for the question, and Cave seemed to be mentally bracing herself for the answer. "…is there something you aren't telling me, or is it maybe something you can't remember?"

Jayden paused, "Something I… can't remember?" he asked, "What do… what do you mean by that?"

"Yes," Cave confirmed, "There seems to be at least a few chapters of your life that you haven't told me about. Is there something you are deliberately hiding from me, or is there something you cannot remember?"

Jayden started searching the depths of his mind, trying to find something. He felt like Cave was right, but he didn't want to think about what that would mean. He slowly lowered his head into his hands as he deepened his thoughts. Jayden seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that several of the others had come over to hear the conversation. Cave became slightly concerned as Jayden made no comments and remained completely silent for the better part of the hour. After the long silence, Cave gave a sigh of minor relief when Jayden finally answered: "I'm telling you everything I can remember." He said quietly, "That is the truth."

Cave bit her lip, debating whether or not the next question was a good question to ask. After a moment or two, she decided to ask him. "Okay, Jayden. I believe you," she reassured him, "But this next question is going to confuse you, and I need you to be ready for it. If you don't want me to ask you, that's okay too."

Jayden paused for exactly four seconds, "Ask me." he quietly requested, "I'd rather have you ask and be messed up than to stumble across it later without answers."

Cave nodded slowly, "Okay. Now then… I know you've told me everything you remember, but think about this… Think back to as far as your mind will reach. Question for a moment whether or not your childhood was your first one."

"What do you mean by that?" Jayden asked, "My first one? What do you mean? Are you implying that this isn't my first time living life or something?" he said it jokingly, but Cave's dead serious face told him he wasn't going to like the answer.

"That's exactly what I'm implying," Cave told him, "So think all the way back, even before you regarded Histoire as your mother. Think for a moment: What is the last thing you can REALLY remember?"

* * *

 **Leave a comment and let me know what you thought!**

* * *

 **So there's another chapter down. I'm so looking forward to what comes next, and I hope you all are too. I have no new comments to respond to, but I do have something else that I haven't done in a while. Remember back when I used to do side conversations in my end slates? I've got another one for you, this time between Jayden and Neptune. This should be fun.**

* * *

 ***Jayden is seated on the couch, Neptune sitting next to him. The two are playing video games when a question arises in Jayden's mind.***

 **Jayden: Did we ever go over just why you're so powerful?**

 **Neptune: What do you mean?**

 **Jayden: Well I think it was chapter twenty... four? It was the one where you joined us in the cave where we got our elemental powers that we never actually used. We went over just how strong you were, probably stronger than most of the rest of us, yet there was never a valid explanation as to why.**

 **Neptune: So what? We never explained Oliver or Maxi either.**

 **Jayden: Okay, yes, but they had their own side-stories to explain how they actually came to meet us. Still, you never got a side-story.**

 **Neptune: (Leaning on Jayden's shoulder)Do I need a side-story? I don't think so. Explanation or not, the people still love me, Jay. No problem there.**

 **Jayden: Yes, I suppose, but now I'm curious. Is there an explanation, or do you do a lot of training, or what?**

 **Neptune: Well that's an easy one. (Neptune sits up and looks Jayden in the eye with a ditzy smile) I'm the main protagonist in the main series. My name's in the title. Why wouldn't I be one of the strongest one's here?**

 **Jayden: (Staring blankly back at Neptune)I both hate and love that answer at the same time and I don't know how to react to it.**

 **Neptune: Then don't. (Leaning back on Jayden's shoulder again) Just roll with it like the rest of us.**

 **Jayden: (Easing back and focusing on the game again) Fair enough. I'll do that.**

* * *

 **And that's all I've got for you this chapter, lemme do my outro, then I'm outta here.**

 **I hope you all have a lovely evening and, be it here or anywhere elsewhere, may we meet again upon another chapter. Buh-bye!**


	30. Error

And that's it. The next chapter is ready. I'm glad I got it finished; I've spent a week more than I normally do. Jayden and Maxi are seated next to me as I uploaded the document to the archive. I ran one last check on my grammar and spelling, even though I'm quite sure I've missed something anyway. Maxi points out a few things I've missed and Jayden notes some more confusing spots. As we worked together, the final check got done much more quickly than I would have anticipated. Just as I'm about to publish it, the computer crashes.

I look at the blank screen for a moment before I realize what exactly just happened. I look to my sides noting that I am alone. With a sigh, I heave myself out of my chair and walk out of my computer room. Some part of me really wants to believe it's real. Some part of me really wants to believe that I'm just writing a story about my friends or some people I've just so happened to meet. The other part of me remembers that it's nothing more than words on a page. I take a moment to contemplate as I walk out the door.

"What am I doing?" I ask myself, "Why do I bother? I publish weekly or otherwise with a story that I've created and look forward to returning to, but what am I doing on the other side? What am I doing in reality?" I know that there is no one around to hear me, but that doesn't particularly bother me. I talk to myself every now and again; all the best people do. That's what I was told at least. I chuckle to myself. "You're going crazy. The readers aren't going to care what's going on on the outside, they want to know what's going on inside. You left the last chapter off on a cliffhanger." a short pain runs through my head. I don't bother to try and do anything about it. "You're running out of time here. At some point or another you're going to have too much work. You're going to need a job. You're going to need to support yourself. You won't have time for this." I say it aloud, confirming my own thoughts. It's true. But at the same time, it's also true that I still have time. Even if I'm running out, I still have today.

"So then," I tell myself. I ask myself this question a lot, "If you only had one day, and the end of the day was the end of it all, what would you do with it?" A smile crosses my face as I already know the answer.

"It's easy." I tell myself, "I make it count."

I turn around to head back to my house only to be stopped by a growling sound behind me. I turn back around to see a snarling wolf. I keep myself calm, but also acknowledge that this could be the end of it here. In the story I write, I am the all-powerful. But this isn't a story, it's real. There's no such thing as a continue; game over is the end. I brace myself and slide my belt off my pants. I may not be as powerful in reality, but I'm no wimp either. The wolf paces around me, snarling and snapping its jaws. I hold one end of my belt, making sure that the metal end hangs to the floor, and I lightly scrape it along the ground, causing a meager amount of sparks. Glancing around, I spot a branch with a buildup of leaves and bark around one end, yet the other end is stripped bare. It seems that I've gotten lucky.

The wolf lunges and I lash out with my belt. Striking the side of the wolf's face with the metal part is enough to deter its attack, but not enough to knock it out of the way; it is only a belt after all, not a real ball and chain. I step to the side just in time to let the wolf tumble into the dirt by the side of the road. I throw myself back towards the branch and pick it up, refining it slightly, then pulling out my pocket lighter. I'm not much for smoking, but I know others that are. I light the leafy end of the branch and give the branch a swing as the flames crawl about the end of it and light up the evening. The sun is falling faster and faster as night comes. In the dark, I see another set of yellow eyes emerge. Then there's another, then another. I hold out the flaming branch, keeping the wolves at bay. I'm not entirely sure just how long this will work, but it will work long enough. Funnily enough, this isn't the first time I've stumbled into a scenario like this. Working my way back towards my house with my burning branch held out at the wolves, I work my way until my back is up against my garage. I quickly enter the code into the outside console, while still swaying the branch enough to ward off the wolves. As the garage door opens, strangely enough, the whirring mechanics and bright lights are not enough to dissuade their attention. I silently swear under my breath as I back into the garage and grab a wood cutting axe. This is going to get messy very quickly.

Using a roll of duct tape, I tape the burning branch to the business end of the axe so I can still hold them off. I then grab a smaller, one-handed hatchet. It's a good thing I picked these up from Walmart. I write a lot about people using swords, but I much prefer an axe when it comes down to a scrap like this. As one of the wolves gets a bit braver and decides to advance, I throw the hatchet. It misses and strikes the ground beside the animal, but the blade striking the pavement causes a great deal of sparks to go flying. This, in turn, causes the wolf to jump back. I suddenly regret putting the garage control by the door to the house now, otherwise I could close the door before they got in, but it seems like that's not happening. The branch's flame begins to die out, and I know that I'm going to have to act fast. I go on the offensive and lunge forward. I am rewarded with a solid strike on the biggest of the four wolves. It stumbles back with a wide gash in its face, but, to my surprise, is still very much alive. I watch in dismay as the wolf hurries back over and the gash seals on its head. I take a moment to note that these are clearly not ordinary forest animals I am dealing with. I glance briefly towards the door, noting that I am not going to be quick enough to lock them out. That is, until I formulate a plan. I swing the axe in a wide arc, causing the wolves to jump back. As soon as they do so, I turn and run for the door, flinging it open and slamming it shut behind me.

I heave a sigh of relief. I stand up and extinguish the flame on the branch. I'll have to put away the branch and the axe tomorrow; otherwise I'll have to deal with the wolves again. As I am about to head back downstairs to do what I planned to, I hear a banging at the door. The banging evolves into a scratching noise and eventually a snarling and barking.

"Damn!" I can't wrap my head around whatever was making these beasts so determined to get to me. Something was very wrong here. I run back into the kitchen where I'd left the axe and picked it up again. I throw open a drawer and grab two meat knives. I'd sharpened them just earlier today, but it seemed like I would not get to use them on food. I hear the front windows shatter as the wolves get in. As the biggest one comes around the corner I throw the first knife. It lands squarely in the wolf's face, literally right between the eyes. Lucky shot; I'm usually not that accurate. I throw the second knife at the same wolf and embed the blade in its neck. What happens next is only describable as shocking to me. The wolf bursts into pixels, just as it would in the Neptunia games. I decide to save my questions for later.

If that was the case, I'd probably fallen asleep in front of the computer and this was all just a dream. I smiled slightly as I realized that was exactly what it is, and I am in no danger at all. I spring forward and bring the axe down, performing a jump-strike (as taught to me by the Hero of Hyrule) on the next wolf in line. To my delight, this wolf is not as sturdy as his bigger companion and bursts into pixels in one shot. I swing the axe in a round arc next, batting the other two wolves away. The smaller of the two recovers quicker and lunges towards me. I hold up the axe to deflect the attack, and succeed in doing so, only to have the other of the two beasts bite my left arm. I hiss in pain and bring the axe down on the wolf's head, defeating it, and finish off the second, and last, wolf with a solid swing. I look at my left arm where the wolf had bitten me. I'm bleeding, and quite heavily. If I am indeed dreaming, then this is an optimal time to wake up. Unfortunately, no such thing happened and I'm left with the realization that this is indeed happening. I run back into the kitchen and wash the blood off my arm. After that, I wrap it in some gauze bandages that I have in the cabinet. Luckily I've stocked up on medical supplies for hurricane season, though I suppose this requisites their use as well. If this is actually happening then there were two explanations, those being:

A. I am going insane, or

B. I am going to have a lot more work to do in the coming weeks than I anticipated.

Seeing as there's no question that I went insane a long time ago, I go with option B, and decide to head off to sleep after changing out the windows. If tomorrow would be anything like what just happened, then I'm going to need the rest.

* * *

The next day, I awoke and went downstairs to check my computer. Unfortunately for me, my basement was no longer vacant. Several zombies populated the storage area, and a young lady with a handgun (currently in use on the zombies) and a rapier (fitted into a sheath on her right side) was currently fending off the zombies. I recognized her after a moment or two.

"Viola?" I questioned to myself, ducking around a corner and out of sight of either the zombies or the girl, "The last time we heard anything about her was in chapter 20... and that was just a subtle mention. What's REALLY going on here? Do I just accept that I've become part of my own story?" I thought back to chapter nine, "I suppose not much has really changed." Drawing my axe from yesterday, which I'd kept on my person after those events, I charged in to assist the young lady and beheaded the DQN Zombies as to have them burst into pixels like the rest. Taking out multiple zombies with every swing, I subtly noted that I was much stronger than I probably should have been for a human in this kind of scenario. Maybe my power as an author had begun to leak through as well? There was only one way to find out.

I checked my pockets for the thing I needed. Sure enough, I pulled out the ring and slipped it onto my finger. I then paused the world for a moment to draw a line across the zombies with my finger, and then allowed the world to resume as the remaining zombies were all cleaved in half.

"So much for the reality check that this chapter was supposed to be," I said out loud, "I suppose asking for normality would just be too much." I looked over at Viola, then at the TV screen. Before I could process what was going on on the television screen, something burst out of it. It looked like a woman in a blue dress, and she began crawling up and down the walls before springing towards me. I lurched backwards and hit the wall behind me, dropping the axe in the process, as the woman began to crawl over me. I reached for whatever I could, grabbing something that I was fairly certain was some kind of toy gun. I swung the thing around, batting the lady-spider-person-thing off of me and scrambled to my feet. Viola was quite busy handling another such creature. It was then that I realized the things were coming out of the television. As the woman approached me again, I raised the gun up and fired on instinct. Sure enough, I blew the creature to pixels. I lowered the gun and had a look at it. This was not a toy gun, it was an assault rifle. If looked like a futuristic AK-47, like and AK-48, or -49, or maybe even as far as -147. Once again, I decided to hold my questions until the end and drew the rifle up once more and first shot the creature off of Viola, then the next creature that emerged from the television, and then I shot out the TV all together. I sighed in relief. "At least that's over with."

"Who are you?" Viola suddenly asked from the floor, "And what are you doing here?" I looked over at the short-haired, blonde girl with fiery red and icy blue eyes. To others they looked quite intimidating, but to me, I found them quite normal. I was, after all, a fanfiction writer; my own main OC had rainbow eyes.

"I think the more adequate question is what YOU are doing here." I corrected her, "This is, actually, my world that you're in, and I don't mean the one I created with my stories, I mean reality. You shouldn't be here."

"Yeah, sure," Viola shot back, "I swear, once my father gets here..."

"Your father?" I asked, not remembering who her father was, "Who... you know what? No. Just... Here's the deal. Either I'm somewhere I'm not supposed to be, you're somewhere you're not supposed to be, or we're both in for a very long journey in six or seven minutes."

Viola scrunched up her nose, "What's that supposed to mean?" the blonde girl asked, "If you're implying..." her hand slowly moved over to her handgun. I quickly flung my own rifle over my back and picked the axe back up, but held it in a benign position.

"Let's not be hasty," I quickly told her, "If what I think is happening, is happening, it better not be. But if it is, then we're both going to need each other's help."

"Fine," Viola said after an exasperated sigh, "But only because we share a common goal. Don't expect any favors from me."

"I wouldn't want any favors from you, Missy." I shot back. Viola was a lot more tsun than I remembered. I just hoped that there was some sort of dere underneath. I wasn't looking to get into a relationship with her, but I did want this excursion to be a bit more bearable than having to deal with a huffy bitch the whole way. I stopped for a second, thinking of where to start. "Now then, yesterday, when my computer crashed..." I walked past Viola into my computer room, which was exactly the way I left it, and hit the power button. With a giddy little sound of excitement, I had a seat in my chair as I noted that it was booting up just fine. I entered in my password and the computer started like normal before bringing up a pop-up message. "That's strange I thought I had pop-ups blocked..." I muttered as I looked at the video.

"Oh this is no ordinary pop-up," It was Arfoire. Turns out that this pop-up was not a video, it was a two-way communication method. "This is a magic mirror. It allows me to see and talk to you. It also allows me to-"

"It's a magic mirror?" I asked, cutting her off, "If it's magic, then why did you have to wait for my computer to use it?"

"Never mind that!" Arfoire yelled at me, "I've succeeded in taking over your computer, and now I'm going to merge reality and fantasy together! There's nothing you can do to stop me!"

"Well personally I'm perfectly fine with that." I told her, "I would love a world where fantasy and reality are mixed. Just think of all the cool stuff there would be to do, and all the different kinds of creatures that they world would have, and all the different kinds of technologies and uses for magic we could find."

"You're not supposed to be okay with this." Arfoire said dully, "What do I have to do to make you oppose me here?"

"Um..." I had to think about that one, "I'm not sure."

"When fantasy and reality are merged, I'm going to control it all, blah, blah, blah, dystopian bullcrap, blah, blah, blah, Mua ha ha, I'm evil." Arfoire said half-heartedly, "Oh, and I'm going to keep your computer." She added.

"Oh hell no, you're not!" I yelled back at the screen, "I built this computer myself! You can't have it!"

"Are you serious?!" Viola yelled at me, "THAT'S what's going to motivate you to be the hero?!"

"We've all got our own reasons for being here," I told Viola, "Just cuz mine are a bit more self-serving than yours means nothing. Now stop bothering me, the major characters are having a discussion, minor characters like yourself aren't allowed." Viola huffed at me. "Yes, I know you're not a minor character anymore. Don't question me; I will... be rather upset if you do."

"Suddenly I question making you my archnemesis." Arfoire said, "Or maybe I made a good choice because you're useless? Also, you call her a minor character, do you even have a name yet, or have we danced around it?"

"We've completely danced around it, and I plan to continue doing so. Also, what is this?" I asked, "Everyone gang up on me Day? I thought that was later this year?"

"Why is there a day for ganging up on you?" Viola asked.

"Don't ask hard questions, I don't have answers." I replied, "Now then, Arfy. If you'd be so kind as to ramble a bit about your evil plan, so I can discern exactly what it is you're doing and how to stop you, then I'd very much so appreciate it."

Arfoire smiled and straightened her witch hat. "Well... since you asked so nicely..."

"Oh my goddesses..." Viola groaned, "Don't tell me she's actually that stupid."

"Of course she is." I shot back, "Now be quiet and let Arfy talk."

"Why thank you," Arfoire said, "Now then, I know you completed the next chapter or two for your fanfiction, so I've torn up the chapters and scattered them. The only way to get the chapters progressing as you wanted them to be is to write them again and try to overwrite what I've put. But, every piece of the chapter is guarded by one of my elites, so you'll have to defeat them in order to obtain the piece you need to fix. Also, you're not strong enough to do this with just the two of you, so good luck on that, sweetie."

"Thanks," I told her, "That was a good explanation. Now then, I'm gonna get on that, if you'd be so kind as to wait for me to finish. There are a lot of games on my steam profile, it starts up when my computer boots up, so it's already open, here I can set you up playing some Fairy Fencer if you'd like. Also, I'm going to go find Jayden and them to help me do this, and then I'll be back once I'm ready to fix what you've broken."

"Sure," Arfoire responded, "So what kind of games can I choose from?"

"I think Megadevotion Noire just got recently released on Steam." I noted, "I haven't really played it much, and Warechu's actually a good guy in that one apparently, and I've got all the DLC for it, so maybe you could figure it out? If not, I've also got stuff like Gmod and Half-Life..."

"Are you seriously having this conversation with the main antagonist?" Viola asked me, "It seems a bit odd to be so polite and friendly to the main villain and enemy doesn't it?"

"Hey, just because Arfy's a 'bad guy' doesn't make her a bad guy," I told Viola, "Check your privilege, Missy. All people can be good people; they've just chosen what they believe to be right in favor of what we believe to be right."

"That's oddly philosophical of you." Viola responded, "Why'd you choose to say that? Was that genuinely your response to my question, or did you just feel like giving a response that sounded cool?"

"Don't ask hard questions," I told her, "Don't worry about it; I don't think it really matters. Have fun, Arfy. We'll be back soon enough, give us like a chapter or so. What we should be concerned about is finding the two chapter fragments so we can kick out Arfy. It shouldn't take long. We just have to find them, and then bring them back. I'll deal with fixing everything once we're back. Also, I want another weapon of sorts, you might want one too."

"I could use one," Viola supposed, "Show me what you've got and I'll pick something if it catches my eye. I'd prefer something quick but powerful, do you have anything of the sort?"

"I'm not entirely sure," I admitted, "But we can check. Let's head on over to the room next door and find out. I'm not entirely sure since things in my house seemed to have changed. This rifle was a Nerf Gun before." Viola made an 'ah' sort of face before following me into the storage area next door. I had a look around, noting various things that seemed much more ready for combat. I picked up a small bag that was usually a tool bag, but was full of throwing knives now. I showed it to Viola. "Do you want this?" I asked her.

"Throwing isn't my strong suit." Viola told me, "It's a handy thing to have, but I think you'd use it better." I attached the bag to my belt then looked around for something else. "Can I take this?" I looked over at what Viola was holding. It was a pair of handguns that seemed more powerful than hers. I nodded.

"Take whatever you want. We're gonna need it." I told her. Viola replaced her current handguns then looked over to me.

"I'm ready to go. I've got something to cover my third slot." she told me. I raised an eyebrow and she held out one hand. Electricity began to arc between her fingertips, power charging up very quickly. After a quick release, lightning arced from her hand, and then bent up and around back into her grip. Blades formed at both ends of the bolt as the lightning solidified. Viola now held a see-through lightning bow with silver blades at either end.

"Was that a modified Thoron spell?" I asked, "It looked an awful lot like Thoron. That's a Fire Emblem thing, isn't it?"

"It is," Viola confirmed, "And yes, that's what it was. My father taught me how to manipulate magic from the norm to what I want. For me, this is my go-to. The arrows form as I draw back the string." Viola demonstrated this phenomenon to me as she pulled back the string and a second bolt formed in the place of an arrow.

"That's handy." I noted, "So you're good to go?" Viola nodded. I turned and grabbed another weapon off the wall. Normally it was a right-angle meter-stick, but the world decided that it was now a large scythe.

"That looks extremely unconventional and inefficient," Viola commented, "Who would use something like that?"

"I can think of a few people," I replied, "Matter of fact, I can think of a LOT of people who would use this. That doesn't particularly matter at the moment, though. Arfoire said we had to find 'all the fragments of the chapter' but there are only two and I'm fairly certain she has one."

"How can you be certain?" Viola asked, "That seems like a lot of guessing and intuition to me."

"To you, yes." I answered, "But I wrote the script. Therefore I know what's happening."

"I thought all of this was off script?" Viola inquired further, "Surely you didn't script getting taken over by Arfoire?"

"Not in its entirety, but at some point the thought crossed my mind," I responded, "Now then, if the Video Game and Real worlds have collided then that might mean we have to deal with some potential bugs. However, some of them might be helpful. Lucky for us, I know where the first fragment is, the one that Arfoire doesn't have, I kept it safe in one of my safehouses."

"You have safehouses?" Viola asked, "Isn't this entire chapter based on your real life in terms of setting and things you're picking up? Why do you have safehouses?"

"In case of a zombie apocalypse or some crap like that," I told her, "Why else? Oh, I guess in case something like this happened too. Anyway, the one that we need to get to is quite a distance from here, so we'll need a better way of getting there." I set the scythe down and grabbed two boards from the back of the room before heading upstairs to the garage.

"What are those boards you grabbed?" Viola asked. In response I tossed the boards to the floor where they remained, levitating off the ground by about six inches. "A pair of hoverboards? How convenient for us that you had them. My father also taught me how to use one of these as well."

"That's also very convenient, but knowing how to ride it may not be so helpful for the bug we're about to exploit, that is, if it works." I told her, "You ever played Skate 3? It's by EA. It's got more bugs than an anthill. That aside, one of them includes running into the corner of a car at the same time as picking up your board."

"What does it do?" Viola asked, "You've told me how to activate it, but not what to expect when it does. Is it like an invincibility cheat, or maybe an infinite ammo bug?"

"Observe." I opened up the garage door then walked over to the car on the left side of my driveway. I put the hoverboard on the trunk of the car, then backed up to where Viola was. I ran towards the car and grabbed the board at the second my waist collided with the back of the car. As soon as the board was fully in my hand I felt my feet leave the ground as I was sent flying into the air. I heard Viola shriek as I flew through the air, only to see her follow me a few seconds later. I heard her scream, first in terror, then in delight as the air rushed around us.

"Alright!" she yelled over to me, "I've got to hand it to you! This is actually really cool! How do we land this though?"

"Easy!" I yelled back, "We've got hoverboards! Just get up on the board before you hit the ground! The board is designed to auto adjust the impacts of things so you don't hurt yourself while riding it! It should be enough to land smoothly!" I positioned my feet like you would normally do on a skateboard as the two of us descended towards the ground. I saw Viola do the same as we came in for the landing. As we hit the ground, no momentum was lost, and rather, we made a smooth transition to horizontal movement rather than vertical. The safehouse wasn't far away now, the hoverboards were pretty quick, not to mention the fact that we'd launched ourselves with the car glitch which covered most of the distance pretty fast. Pulling up in front of the house I pulled the board out from under my feet and attached it to my back where I could grab it later. Viola was right behind me as I unlocked the door and went to the cabinet in the living room that held the item I needed. It was a half a scrap of yellow paper. "Here we go."

"That's it?" Viola asked, "You wrote it on a paper? With how long your chapters are, how does even half the chapter fit on the paper?"

"It's not supposed to make sense," I told her, "It just functions in a way that we need it to. With this we can head back and combine it with the one Arfoire had. After that something else will happen and we can eject Arfoire from our story."

"Didn't she say one of her elites would be guarding it?" Viola asked, "Where are they?" As if on cue, the ground rumbled. Viola shot me a concerned glance, but I remained calm. Quietly, I drew one of the knives from my pouch. The knife replaced itself courtesy of magic. I held the knife with my thumb and forefinger by the tip of the blade, and waited. Suddenly, the front wall burst open. I sprang back and out of the way of CFW Judge's hammer. Skidding back into the Hall, I threw the knife I was holding at Judge's eye, but he seemed to be quicker than that.

"Judge will require more effort than that!" Viola yelled to me. She sprang back alongside me and the two of us formulated a plan. "One of us will have to set him off balance for the other to attack."

"Sounds good to me," I told her, "try using your bow and I'll see what I can do." Viola drew her lightning bow and charged her shot as much as she could. I grabbed two more knives from my bag and waiting. Viola peeked around the corner and unleashed the bolt from her bow, driving it through his guard. Now that he was open, I threw the two knives into Judge's eyes now. He reeled back shouting something about how he was going to kill everything when he could see again. Frankly I wasn't willing to give him that chance; I didn't doubt that he would throw a tantrum that would probably kill hundreds if I let him recover. I pulled my axe off my back and charged him down, Viola close behind me. I jumped up for a high strike and Viola closed in below, and together we tore Judge apart with a Duo attack. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with how easy it was, but I suppose the physics of the real world get in the way of a giant mechanical creature being able to move, or really do much of anything. Me being me, I decided to chalk it up to plot convenience and leave that as it was.

Viola and I employed the use of our hoverboards and headed back towards my usual home. Now that I had this fragment, I just needed the one Arfoire had in order to fix the next chapter. After that, I'd be able to claim my computer back and everything would be fan-flipping-tastic. As we rode back towards the house, I decided to check the fragment to make sure that it had everything I needed. It read a little something like this:


	31. Memories

Jayden locked up at this comment. When he didn't answer, Cave repeated it: "What is the last thing you can remember Jayden? Is it the childhood memories with Histoire or something further back?" It wasn't the childhood memories with Histoire. There WAS something further back. Memories of playing with someone else, a girl, maybe a sister? He couldn't remember clearly.

Without a word, Jayden stood from his chair, turned extremely sharply around, and walked out the door. He could hear people shouting behind him, but he was gone before they could reach him. Jayden was vaguely aware of his feet moving as his brain rushed with thought and pain. He wasn't sure where exactly he was going. Rather quickly, ideas of what had been said before came back to his mind. Hadn't Yami said something similar? What had Yami said?

"All those years ago, we made a promise with the True Goddess. She talked about only leaving to accompany a boy who would one day become a legendary hero. She had a small baby with her that almost looked like you. You're that hero, aren't you? The one the goddess spoke of?" Maybe she was right.

Jayden suddenly noted that he was no longer walking. "Where'd I put myself?" He asked no one in particular, "And why am I here?" Jayden didn't actually recognize the area. It was a large stone wall in the side of a large structure that might have been a mountain. It looked like a temple and there were familiar designs carved into the stone. He stood in front of a door with a slot on it shaped like a keyhole. Jayden extended Zhen's arm blade, purely from instinct, and raised his blade to the key hole. Zhen changed shape as Jayden put the blade in, fitting the hole with a perfect little *click* as the door rumbled. As the door slid open, Jayden's gauntlets fell off and changed back into their normal forms. Jayden quickly picked Zhen up, his shape changing to one-handed form, and drew Fidelity in his other hand. He got the feeling that this run-down temple would not be clean of monsters since it had been abandoned for so long. Jayden didn't walk or run, rather he lightly jogged down the corridor until he came to an open room. Several of the ruins looked familiar to him, and some of them even looked like people he was pretty sure he knew. He sheathed Fidelity in favor of Zhen, and conjured a small ball of flame in his hand, tossing it up into a torch, then repeating the process for the several torches around the room. Lo and behold, the door forward opened when he was done, revealing the next room. In the next room were several armored skeletons, Jayden threw small ice daggers to each one, drawing them one at a time, and picking them off. This was not a low level area, and was perhaps the highest level difficulty he'd ever seen in a normal area. The difficulty rivaled, if not surpassed the Gamindustri Graveyard, matter of fact, he was almost certain this temple was at least ten times harder, making it difficult for even him since he was alone. He'd half a mind to leave and return with some backup, but that was before he remembered that he'd come here alone, and his feet had carried him completely autonomously. As Jayden headed through the stone corridors, lighting torches, incinerating bats, and hacking and slashing through skeletons and giant lizards, he thought about what this area could be. After a while, Jayden drew Fidelity and changed to dual-wielding, only to realize that Fidelity hardly did any damage to the monsters around this area. Reluctantly, Jayden drew Gehaburn instead. The Vile Blade seemed to try and speak to him, but Jayden ignored it. Possessing the same augmented properties that Zhen had, Gehaburn was able to cut through these monsters just as easily. As a plus, Gehaburn's blade glowed with a radiant violet light that illuminated the way as he went. Coming to a closed door with an engravement shaped like a slit, no key being gained along the way, Jayden tried to think about what he could use. Fidelity's blade was too small. Zhen's blade was the wrong size as well, and none of his sizes or blade forms seemed to work. After a moment's hesitation, Jayden put Gehaburn's blade into the slit. Gehaburn fit perfectly, and the door lit up with Gehaburn's purple hue. After a moment or two, the door split into fragments and slid aside, opening the way for Jayden to continue. This room seemed to be at the end of the dungeon, though there could have possibly been something else up ahead. There was a pedestal with an identical slit to the one in the door. Jayden stabbed Gehaburn's blade into the pedestal to see what would happen, and was thrown backwards into the wall. Jayden slammed his hands over his ears as Gehaburn screamed, dark clouds of energy circling outwards and forming together just above where Gehaburn's blade had entered. Forming into a menacingly powerful-looking demon, the dark energy solidified and the demon's demented laughs filled the cavern. Jayden quickly regained his footing and readied himself, holding out Zhen in titan blade form. The demon seemed to be interested.

"I see you wield his blade, little Hero. Let us see whether or not you know how to use it." The demon growled.

"Careful there, Jayden." Gehaburn said, "That demon is the same one that was used to forge me. That's the same one that absorbs CPU blood to become stronger. Whether you realize it or not, you have CPU blood in you, so he'll thirst for your blood just the same. Don't let him succeed. I can't help you directly in this fight, but I can advise you on how to beat him." Jayden remained silent, but made sure to pay attention to see whether or not Gehaburn might start talking again.

"A young looking boy with blades of light and silver, slashes through the darkness that plagues the land. His mind shattered, he shall heal and return when the world needs him most. The deity will fall at his hands for a second time, bring back the light of our blessed world. And on the seventh day so forth, he will be gone again." the demon said, "So then, little Hero... let us see whether or not you stand to your own prophecy. I am not the darkness that plagues the land, but that can quickly change if you don't defeat me. Let us see whether or not-"

Jayden got tired of listening to the demon talk and had plunged Zhen's blade directly into its face. The demon froze, holding its position for a while. After a moment or two, it spoke once more.

"I-I-in o-one h-hit?" It seemed to question what had happened, "H-how c-can you be t-that p-powerful?" The demon dissolved into black ashes which furthermore dissolved into the floor. Gehaburn produced a noise akin to a sharp whistle.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Gehaburn said, "the future of Gamcompani is looking brighter than ever. How'd you do that? Is that some kind of hidden sword skill, or did you activate a special when he wasn't paying attention?"

Jayden wasn't sure. That had been just like any other stab he'd delivered, just with a bit more effort behind it. "I'm genuinely unsure." Jayden told the demon blade, "but I'm not going to question it."

"Good thinking," Gehaburn said, "this wall behind me feels like it's about to open up. Come on over and pick me up and let's see where it goes." Jayden walked over and grabbed Gehaburn, sheathing his blade over his back. As he continued down the passage, Jayden couldn't help but think about everything the demon had said, especially that prophecy.

"A young looking boy with blades of light and silver, slashes through the darkness that plagues the land. His mind shattered, he shall heal and return when the world needs him most. The deity will fall at his hands for a second time, bring back the light of our blessed world. And on the seventh day so forth, he will be gone again." That was it, right?

Well he definitely didn't look his age, that was for certain. Blades of silver and light? When that was probably Zhen. Zhen was part Sonic Silver, part solid light. Slashing through darkness? Seems about right. Mind shattered? Oh holy hell, check. Whether that was his previous state of amnesia or his current state of confusion, he wasn't sure, but it was probably one or the other. Heal and return when needed? That seemed to pertain to right now. The deity will fall at his hands for a second time? Well the deity had awoken in this dimension, so yeah, he'd be fighting it later. Maybe a few weeks, but definitely later. Also, it would be the second time. The first was chapter seventeen, or whenever it had happened previously in this version of the timeline. The next part was 'bring back the light of the blessed world?' Maybe he'd already done that? What exactly was the light anyway? Jayden didn't actually use a whole lot of light-attribute attacks, but what Kei said earlier made Jayden think that this 'light of the blessed world' might actually be himself. If that was the case, then that was already accomplished. Wait, no. The prophecy said that on the seventh day he'd be gone again, so it didn't make sense for the light to be him. Also, being gone on the seventh day made sense because he had to continue on to find the version of the timeline that he could use to fix his own. Suddenly Jayden felt like this was going to be quite a bit harder than he'd originally anticipated. Shaking his head, Jayden continued onwards through the depths of the ancient temple, now fighting such things like possessed armours and weapons. Jayden saw a few interesting pieces, but left them where they were for fear of stirring up something he didn't want to deal with. Also, he had three powerful swords, and four reliable shields, as well as a hidden secret from his school guy self that he was keeping for emergencies. He also had the new addition to his arsenal that he'd received last chapter and hadn't used yet. He ALSO had the airbrush ring which he could start using at any time. Wink wink, nudge nudge, Jayden.

"I'll get to it, I'll get to it," Jayden reassured me, "Trust me, I saw how convenient it was last chapter." For the moment, that'll do. Jayden progressed past the next few rooms and entered what looked like the end once more. Several runes and glyphs lined the wall in various patterns and possibly different languages that Jayden didn't really understand. As confusing as they were though, they also seemed familiar. Jayden was confused on how that was possible but decided that questioning the logic of an internet story, a Neptunia Fanfiction, no less, was not worth the time it took to complete the task. In the center of the room, it seemed like sunlight leaked through into the chamber, illuminating the walls and details with something other than torchlight. From the hole in the ceiling descended a woman. Jayden shielded his eyes from the bright light her white gown emitted. After the light died down enough for him to see, Jayden removed his hand from his eyes and had a better look.

The woman's hair was long, flowing, and was made up of gorgeous golden locks. Her body was curvy and shapely, but not over-exaggerated. Her lips were full and red, though it didn't appear to be from makeup. Her white toga-like dress reached down to just below her knees and had no sleeves. Her milky white skin looked smooth and shiny. It seemed to Jayden that the only way to describe her appearance was that of a goddess, both perfect and plausible at the same time. When she opened her eyes, however, that was the kicker. The woman's eyes cycled through every colour of the rainbow, starting with a fiery red, then to a bright orange, then a neon yellow, followed by a grassy green, then a neon blue, then an ocean blue, followed by a majestic violet and magenta before returning to red. It was almost as if Jayden was looking into his own eyes, just much more visually appealing. The woman looked down at him now, and Jayden felt a slight warmth shoot through his body.

"I wondered when I would finally see you again." she said with a smile, "I'm happy that I can see you now. I missed you. I knew that if I continued to guide and help you that you would return to me eventually." Jayden's mind started digging for information. Why did her voice sound familiar? "Have you forgotten me so quickly?" she sounded sad, and slightly disappointed, "It has been some time, I suppose." Bingo, got it, that's who it was. Jayden finally recognized the woman's voice as the same one that had led him and granted him new powers through speaking in his own mind.

"I understand that you've been guiding me this far, and I appreciate that, but I'm still super confused." Jayden replied, "Who... who are you, exactly?" The mascots removed themselves from his inventory and assumed their human forms in front of him.

"Jayden, you're getting careless again." Yami scolded him, "I've talked to you about this already."

"She's right," Buranka added, "It was just earlier in this chapter that you brought it back up."

"That was so long ago, Yami," Violet noted, "Maybe he just doesn't remember?"

"He should remember." Midori stated bluntly, "He remembers plot points that were so unimportant that everyone else forgets them; for example, the fact that we were actually here."

Jayden sighed, "Is someone gonna give me an answer or are we gonna dance around it? We can just dance around it. I'm used to it by now. I have so many questions pent up that I've just learned to accept the fact that I'll never know everything."

"This woman standing behind us is the True Goddess, Jayden." Yami finally answered, "THE True Goddess. She's the one we made the promise with so many years ago only to leave our posts guarding the nations if and when you came along. I guess it's just fate that's led us back together."

"Ah." Jayden felt extraordinarily dumb, "That... makes absolutely no sense but I'm gonna just go with it. That's all I usually do when I have questions about the plotline."

"Yes," The True Goddess said, "I am Eos Artamiel. Most heroes of past and others who have met me knew me as Aerta." she smiled and extended one hand to Jayden. "I brings me pure joy to see you again... Jayden Artamiel... My son."

"Right, right," Jayden said, running the phrase through his head about six or seven times, "Beg pardon? Please, I just... I don't... what?"

"I know it's hard to understand, but I will explain it to you further, I promise." Aerta told him. Suddenly her expression changed. She seemed worried, "But later. Our greatest enemy is on the way and almost here. Prepare yourself for a fight! I cannot help you fight, so I will guide you like always!" Aerta flew back up through the hole in the top of the room as the wall came down from the side Jayden had entered. Jayden sprang back and skidded to a stop on one hand before repositioning himself. The mascots wasted no time in powering up Jayden with their power. His hair became shiny golden yellow and his eyes quickly followed. The woman standing before him was perplexing her aura was dark, yet reminded him of Maxi in a way. She resembled Uzume but had empty, dark blue eyes with a light red hue and long, dark hair. Jayden couldn't tell whether her hair was dark blue or shiny black, but it was the same colour as his own hair. Her attire was inverted compared to Uzume and covered more of her body, and was black with accents of pale grey and indigo. She also seemed older, and more mature. She was more a woman than a girl like Uzume was, but Jayden didn't know how else to address her.

"Hello, Uzume." Jayden said casually, as if there were nothing wrong, "Funny meeting you here of all places. Really is an interesting meeting place. Need something?"

"Please drop the act," The woman said, "You know I'm not Uzume, you're smarter than that. I know you're better than that. You've felled the deity of sin, even when she had fused Neptune's power into her own, you've felled all the CFWs on your own and all at once, you've felled my shadow demon that I housed inside my favorite sword, and you even defeated, without killing, no less, another OC I'd brought in from another story entirely. Not to mention, you did this all solo."

"Shit..." Jayden muttered under his breath, "If she can break the fourth wall like that, then she's gotta be just a strong, if not more so than Garland, and he was tough... It was only because I had the mascots that I could beat him..."

"Yes, Garland was a general of mine, darling. I'm so glad you pieced that together." the woman continued, "So naturally I'd be much more powerful than he could be, even when under the influence of the CFWs. My name is Kurome Ankokuboshi, and I am the Shadow Goddess. I was created by the people of the various Gamindustris, only to be tossed out like garbage and sealed away. Who made the seal? Why none other than your other mother. Yes, the True Goddess. I'll get my revenge someday, and you'll be a nice start."

Jayden sighed, then drew Fidelity and Zhen. It wasn't that he didn't trust Gehaburn, he was just more comfortable with these two. Kurome raised both hands and was somehow already holding Gehaburn. In her other hand was a blade Jayden didn't recognize.

"Like it?" Kurome asked, noticing his gaze, "She's Gehaburn's sister blade. Her name is Infinity. Limitless potential, hm? I think you'll find a battle against her quite impossible."

"Right right," Jayden said as the two clashed blades. Even though they were in full force combat and moving many times faster than potential light-years could even try to go, Jayden still held a conversation, "How about what you said earlier though? My other mother is Eos Artamiel? I carry her last name and it seems like I carry her power, yet you seem to think that there's another."

"I don't think so, I know so." was Kurome's response, "Those were better times... Times I miss." as she said this, there was a noticeable dip in her speed. Kurome didn't seem to acknowledge that she's done this, however, so Jayden didn't take advantage of it, and rather began to formulate a plan.

"I'd love if you'd tell me more, you know." Jayden replied as he knocked her left blade to the right, "Think about it, I'll be dead pretty soon, right? No harm in telling me more."

"Nice try," Kurome snapped, "I'm not that foolish, but I will tell you. It concerns you, and you have a right to know... even if I am going to kill you. You do have another mother, and I don't mean the book fairy you regard as a maternal figure. There was another. One forgotten. She helped too, you know."

"I can imagine," Jayden said, "How could we have forgotten about her then? That doesn't seem logical. Granted, I've forgotten both, but still, she sounds very important."

"She was." Kurome continued, "Unlike Eos, who idled by and simply used magic to take care of everything, she actually cared for you. She poured her heart and soul into raising you." Kurome was several hundred times slower now, moving about the speed of a normal human. Jayden still adjusted his own speed to keep in time with hers. Kurome's strikes carried less power. After a few more strikes, Kurome stopped entirely. "I helped raise you too... Even after your father left and Eos simply watched on without caring, I still loved you..."

Jayden stopped. He had only just met Kurome, but he could tell she wasn't lying. A small tear rolled down Kurome's cheek. He frowned and lowered his blades. "It makes sense." he said suddenly, "Being the son of the true goddess would make me powerful, but Aerta was never meant to be a boss. You, on the other hand... our hair colour matches, our fighting styles match, and you were probably the final boss at some point, weren't you? The genetics of it make sense. Whoever my father was doesn't matter, if you and Aerta are my real mothers, then my powers make sense." he paused for a moment. "But one thing doesn't make sense. I had a sister, didn't I?" Kurome nodded slightly, tears streaming down her face. Her mouth was covered by her hands, her blades on the ground. "Forget about that. Let's focus on what I already know."

"Yes..." Kurome said, regaining her composure, "But there is one thing I must tell you. You cannot abide by both of us, Aerta and I. You must choose one over the other. I will not hold your choice against you. Forgive me for before. I was thinking irrationally. I just... It's been so long, and when I realized who you were... my mind got away from me."

"It's fine." Jayden said, "More than once I've had people try to kill me who then later become allies. So I'll disregard it. As for who to choose...?" Jayden had to think about it. "Yeah, I've got it."

* * *

Three days had passed.

"I'm concerned." Oliver stated.

"I can't see why." Maxi retorted, "this isn't even the longest he's gone missing for."

"That's true, but that was the whole reason we're in this mess." Oliver shot back, "Also, just because he's exhibited similar behavior doesn't mean I can't be concerned about it."

"It's Jayden." Maxi replied, "Leave the worrying to his mother and his girlfriend. Honestly, that boy's defense is stupidly broken kinds of way too high. What could really happen?"

"I don't fucking know Maxi, how about the CFWs jump him? He gets attacked by a fragment of the actual deity? Have you forgotten what's really happening?" Oliver snapped, "You're way too mellow about this. If Jayden doesn't get back in another hour or so, then I'm going to find him. If you're really his friend, then you'll help me."

"I'll help, I'll help, calm your tits bro." Maxi said. He heaved a sigh, "Lemme get my shoes on."

"You don't have to just yet. Just be ready to do so when I say it's time to go." Oliver told him.

"Right, right." Maxi replied, "Just tell me when to be serious."

"Now would be a wonderful time." Oliver responded, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "Maybe you should start off being serious me time. I dunno, the world's ending, it's not a big priority or anything. Deity revives, world ends, everyone dies, no biggie, right?"

"Exactly," Maxi said. Oliver was disappointed to note that it didn't seem like Maxi was joking. "Now you're thinking my way."

"Get your ass off the couch, Maxi." Oliver told him, "We're going Jay hunting."

Just an hour or two later, just like Oliver had said, the two of them were exploring a section of the surrounding area as a team. Several of the makers and CPUs had joined in the effort.

"Just how far away is he that we can't even pick up on his aura to read where he is or might be?" Maxi inquired, "We've established that he's got the easiest aura to read and find, and in Gamacademi we could find it from halfway across the island."

"He could be dead." Oliver stated grimly, "The aura can't be given off it the owner isn't producing the energy that makes up the aura."

"You're going for a worst case scenario." Maxi informed Oliver, "What could kill Jayden? I don't think it's possible. That boy has plot armor thicker than the fourth wall."

"We've already shattered said wall," Oliver reminded Maxi, "So that's no consolation whatsoever. While it's true, he does have formidable plot armor, he's also totally mortal. Also, he's not a god or a goddess like a CPU, and it's been established that the point of view can revolve around someone other than him, so he's not too important of a character to die either."

"I mean it would be unlikely," Maxi noted, "Jayden is THE main character, we don't even rank as high as he does. This story started with him and it'll probably end with him too. The story's not over yet, we still have any number of seasons and games to work through."

"Then explain this." Oliver stopped walking and pointed down towards the ground. Before he looked down, Maxi surveyed the area, checking for anything nearby. Carved into the side of a mountain that rose high above the trees, but was surrounded on all sides by the forest, was a wall with ancient-looking markings carved into it. Maxi looked down at what Oliver was pointing at; whatever it was must have been important. Maxi was slightly taken aback at what he saw.

Looking down rewarded Maxi with a full view of a corpse, specifically one that belonged to the main character, Jayden. Maxi nodded slowly, "Okay, yeah. I see your point now. We can be worried."

Oliver sighed and said, "I still don't understand how you're being so calm about this," as he took inventory of Jayden's body. He couldn't see anything that specifically marked him as having been murdered, but he knew for a fact that Jayden wasn't breathing and his heart wasn't beating. Oliver frowned when he noted that Jayden had nothing on him, not even the Reverent Goggles that he'd gotten last chapter and that he'd been so proud of. Oliver took a deep breath noting that he wasn't exactly sure where to go next, but did know one thing for sure.

There was work to be done.


	32. It's good to be back

I gave a sigh of relief noting that it was indeed the full of what I wanted, and that Arfoire did indeed have the other half. "Alright then, Arfy, I'll have the second half please." I told the witch.

"Just try and take it from me." Arfoire said, the piece appearing on screen. She began to laugh in my face seeing as I couldn't get the piece, but I raised the middle finger to realism and grabbed the slip off the screen. Both Arfoire's and Viola's eyes went wide at this action as I snapped the two pages together.

"Surprise bitch," I said to Arfoire, "I bet you thought you beaten the best of me. I have more plot convenience than Sword Art Online and thicker plot armor than the main protagonist of Sharknado. Come at me." I picked up the hoverboard in my left hand and the axe in my right.

"Did you just quote your own fanfiction?" Arfoire asked, "Because I'm fairly certain-"

"Yes, yes I did." I answered, "But that part hasn't happened in the story yet, so the readers have no idea what you're talking about."

Arfoire sighed. "Fine, let's see you try to kick me out." She said with a huff.

I threw down my hoverboard and the axe from my hands. "Fuck it!" I yelled, and then dove through the screen. If it was a fight Arfoire wanted, then it was a fight she was getting.

* * *

I rolled in midair and performed a stereotypical superhero landing, bending my knees and slamming one fist into the ground. With Arfoire on the loose in here, there was no time to lose, but first I was going to need to make a few modifications for better equipment. I threw open my file explorer for my computer and opened up the file named [HDN] and opened the folder named [assets]. I then went into the folder named [characters], then accessed the folder named [ °•=∆=•° ]. After that, I accessed the file named stats and deleted all the values, replacing them with codes instead of numbers. After I'd modified the folder, I returned to the main folder and activated the EXE file.

The walls built themselves up around me. It was the temple from the previous chapter. I opened up the file explorer again and changed my location values. I now found myself sitting in Planeptune. With my location taken care of, I now turned my attention to equipment.

Opening the folder called [FFS] I located the folder named [Weapons] and then found the file called [Mythril Gigaxe] and dragged the file from that folder into the [ °•=∆=•° ] folder. As soon as I dropped the file into the folder, a magic Mythril Battle-Axe materialized on my back. Next I backed out to the main browser and found the folder called [TES5: S] and found the two folders called [magic] and [Armour]. From the former I grabbed [Candle Light] and from the latter I took [Draconian Bonemold Armour] and copied the two to the [ °•=∆=•° ] folder. With that done, a small ball of light formed at my shoulder and heavy armor formed around me. Now all I needed was some range.

Finally, I delved into the folder name [UTAU476] and browsed the folder named [Guns and Weapons]. From said folder, I took the file named [D€+€®m!π€d ®€\/0|_\/€®] and copied the file over to the [ °•=∆=•° ] folder. That file name was a bit of a bit of a mystery to me. It seemed to be some sort of symbol to letter thing, but the only thing I could figure was that the second word was revolver. Speaking of which, with the file copied into my folder, a revolver in a holster spawned into existence on my left wrist. By moving my hand in such a way I could flick the gun into my hand, and back into the holster, without the need for a pause. The texture seemed to clip through my armour, which effectively meant that it was perfectly hidden until I pulled it out. I was ready. To pull a page out of Oliver's book...

…There was work to be done.

* * *

Oliver paced back and forth across the Basilicom floor. Maxi was out somewhere doing true goddess only knows what, Histoire was crunching numbers, Jayden's Neptune was furiously scribbling things in her Nepnote, the goddesses were running guild quests to improve shares, the oracles were managing their nations, and the makers were scrambled in search of intel on where Jayden might be, or on easier ways to take down the Deity. With Jayden gone they were down on power quite a bit. As Oliver reached the counter for the two thousand, three hundred forty second time that day, Histoire looked up at him with concern.

"Surely there must be some better way to pass the time than running yourself ragged by walking back and forth so much?" Histoire suggested, "Why don't you go find Maxi to see if he's found anything?"

"Because I know he hasn't." Oliver stated bluntly, "He would've texted me if he had. Plus, I'm waiting for any one of the makers to return with something. Rookie mistake: I forgot to provide my phone number to them. I told them I'd be waiting here if they needed me."

"Right, right," Histoire thought about other options quickly, "I made a point of providing your phone number to both IF and Lid. If either of them comes up with something, then they should call you or text you."

"Thank you for that," Oliver replied with a smile, "I can always rely on you to assist in making up for my shortcomings. I want you to know how much I appreciate that. I don't think I've ever seen anyone personally thank you, so I just wanted to do so myself. Without you, there's no possible way we could've come this far."

Histoire blushed, "Thank you, Oliver." She told him, "Your thanks means a lot to me. I will keep that in mind as I continue to do my best in helping you do yours." With a silent nod, Oliver headed off towards the front of the Basilicom, and Histoire continued on crunching numbers and setting values. As Oliver reached the front room, IF and Famitsu came in, trailed soon after by MAGES., and Compa.

"Oh, IF, just who I wanted to see." Oliver commented, "So then, have you found anything noteworthy? Anything on Jayden or the Deity, maybe?"

"Yeah, Famitsu says she got something while working on the papers." IF told him, "Someone that that people are calling, 'The Boss' or some just call him 'Boss.' Others have taken to calling him 'Chief;' we're not really sure. Every report is different."

"I see..." Oliver said, "Well what's so special about this 'Boss' guy? Who is he?"

"We're not sure who he is." Famitsu explained, "I did some research to see if I could make a story or a headliner on it, but this guy is totally anonymous. There are no reports of who he might be, or who he could possibly be. According to the internet, he's a total ghost, shown up out of nowhere." Oliver nodded slowly to affirm that he was listening. "He has his own website though. He's a mercenary apparently. If you pay him a small fee, he'll carry out assassinations. However, he seems to only assist certain clients; he won't help anyone who doesn't have a good reason for needing his services, and it seems like he won't even answer to certain people."

"What do you mean by that?" Oliver asked, "Does he have a client bias? He must have a lot of customers to stay in business and prosper, while still being popular. Who doesn't he accept?"

"Well he won't answer to any of us, that's for sure." IF said, her face sporting an annoyed expression, "And he won't answer to any of the goddesses, but if it's any comfort, it seems like he also ignores any requests that include getting in our way. At the very least, he seems to reject any sort of mission that includes us."

"So he'll just not have anything to do with us?" Oliver asked, "That seems reasonable enough."

"Well not exactly," Famitsu interjected. Oliver raised an eyebrow, "Apparently the CPU candidates were attacked by one of his subordinates. His name was Steamax, and apparently he reports to The Boss. He also revealed that there were three of them. So it's not that he won't interact with us, he's just doing it on his own terms."

"Mmm..." Oliver said quietly, "Alright, one more guy to deal with, no big deal. A small group of mercenaries is no big deal. We've dealt with much worse. I think we should ignore them, we've got bigger fish to fry."

"Well... not exactly." Famitsu said sheepishly, looking over towards the side when she said it, "There's one detail about this that makes this whole thing much more concerning..." Oliver raised an eyebrow, urging that she continue, "So... apparently these guys really do know what they're doing because... er... rumour has it that... um..."

"It's alright, Famitsu," Oliver said reassuringly, "Whatever it is must be important information. There's no need to be hesitant about telling me."

"Right, well..." Famitsu mustered her courage before continuing, "Apparently it was this 'Boss' guy that murdered Jayden."

* * *

I shivered slightly. Somehow we'd wound up in Lowee, there was something here that I needed. Also, at some point or another, Viola had joined me once more. If we were going to take on Arfoire then we were going to need some more assistance. I pulled out my phone and dialed up an old friend of mine. He used to go by the name of Moppin' Glow as a joke, but recently he'd taken to a different one. "Hey, Virious?"

I could hear Virious pick up on the other end, "Hey what's up?" he asked.

"I need your help," I told him, "Can you come here?"

"Well, I can't," he told me, "I'm buying clothes."

"Well hurry up and come over here then!" I told him.

"Well, I can't find them." he told me.

I paused for just a second, "What do you mean... 'You can't find them?'"

"I can't find them," he reiterated, "There's only memes."

I took a moment and looked over at Viola. She just shrugged. "What do you mean there's only memes?" I shouted into the phone.

"It means there's only memes!" Virious shouted back.

"Then get outta the meme aisle!" I shouted.

"Alright!" he yelled, "You don't have to shout at me!" I heard him walk a bit on the other end. Suddenly, "THERE'S MORE MEMES."

"Whataya mean there's more memes?!" I responded.

"There's just more memes!" was his response.

"Go into the next aisle!" I shouted.

"There's still memes!"

"Where are you right now?!"

"I'm at meme!"

"What do you mean you're at meme?!"

"I mean I'm at meme!"

"WHAT STORE ARE YOU IN?!"

"I'M AT THE MEME STORE!"

"WHY ARE YOU BUYING CLOTHES AT THE MEME STORE?!"

"I wanted a Leeroy Jenkins Hoodie."

"Virious, no..." I muttered, "I've already made that reference back in chapter twenty nine. We can't make the same reference twice."

"Why not?" he asked "You've already referenced Code: MENT back in chapter fourteen."

"You haven't even read this fanfiction." I complained, "You specifically told me that you would start reading it in three or four chapters when we get to season two and move onto SAO. You don't play the Neptunia games and you don't get these references."

"Well sure." he stated, "But you're writing my dialogue."

"You pose a fair point," I retorted, "but I didn't ask for your opinion."

"It's not my opinion," he shot back; "You're the one writing it."

I took four seconds to contemplate my own mental health and reason for this conversation. "Can you just get the fuck over here already?"

"Okay, sure." he said, "But now comes the fun question: 'where are you?'"

My face met my palm. "You know, I didn't think of that, I probably should have. I'll call you back or something, I'm gonna make another call real quick." I dialed up Kupo and Lance and requested that they head over. I noted that one of them should probably pick up Virious first. Within a few minutes, Virious faceplanted in front of me, and Lance and Kupo were armed and ready to.

Lance nodded with satisfaction, "Yeah, and they thought we were minor characters." he said with a smug grin, "Time to show them that there's nothing minor about us."

"Well not exactly," I told him, "We're still minor characters, operating a subplot behind the scenes, but we're just less minor than before. If you think about it, I haven't even had a name drop yet."

"Well you're the author, right?" Kupo asked, "There's no point in dropping your name. We can read it from the summary."

"Not exactly," I told him, "Never once did I say I was THE author. I could be someone else entirely. Let the readers think what they will. Creativity of the mind and the factor of the unknown are some of the best parts of suspense and creation. Now then, Virious, I've gotta get you some gear."

"'Gear?'" Virious asked, "What is this, an RPG game or something?" I glared at him. "Right, knowing you it probably is. Anyway, if you've got some assassin or rogue gear, I'll take that. Looking at your little brigade here, I take it that you've got a mercenary, you're a tank, he's a dualist, and he'd be a ranger, but there's no assassin. I'll fill that slot for you."

"I'd appreciate that," I said, opening up my file explorer again, "Here we go..." I pulled four items out of various places, files called: [Outlaw Dread Blades], [Mythic Tier 19 Assassin Armour], [Glass Netch Daggers], and [Wrist computer], then copied and dragged them into the folder named [Virious]. Sure enough, he was decked out with gear. "Nothing left to get in the way, and nothing left to do but go."

"Let's show Arfoire that she messed with the wrong storyline." Kupo said.

"It's her own bad luck that she encountered us." Viola agreed, "Minor characters or not, let's show her what happens when you try and take over our storyline."

"Agreed," Lance put simply, "I believe a grand battle is in order."

"Yes, all in good time." I told him, "But remember: we're only a sub-plot. There's more happening in the main storyline, you know, the one we're trying to fix. Let's check in on this boss guy we just heard about, shall we?"

* * *

A tall, blue robot strode down a dark hall. In the center of the hall was a large red carpet that spanned almost seven meters across. The rest of the hall was a dark indigo that seemed to absorb any light from the dimly lit bulbs and lamps that were occasionally tethered to either the walls or the ceiling. For as regal as the place appeared, it was easy to see that it had been illuminated rather hastily.

The Blue Bot seemed to be thinking about something as he walked on. His armour plating shone slightly in the dim light. He was a physical personification of Stealth Marketing, named as he was after a certain red-haired owner of one of the largest corporations to exist across the multiverse. The ninja android had a silver sharpened specialized shield on his left arm and a large silver blade, held backwards, in his right hand. A silver section was in place over his stomach that was composed of several plates interlocked for easier movement in his midsection. Around the sides of his torso and pelvis was a design composed of a black background and neon blue hexagons. His feet were shaped like blue and silver boots that had an aerodynamic design to allow him to run at speeds well over 342 meters per second. His design was ingenious, and suited very well for combat, yet his mind was not always so well designed. This particular robot's name was Steamax.

Steamax took a smaller form, now standing about 2 meters in height, and appearing much more human-like, and kneeled before his master.

"That was pretty quick." The boss said, "You defeated all of the goddess candidates and their allies?" Steamax nodded, "and you left all of them alive like I asked?" Steamax gave another nod. The boss noted that Steamax was concealing something on his left hand. "You are unscathed?" Steamax provided no response. "I see. Though it was no challenge for you to defeat them all?"

"This is correct, master." Steamax answered, "My injury is but a minor one. There is no need to worry about me."

"Nonsense." The boss said quickly, "You are not just my apprentice and subordinate; you are also my friend, Steamax. Affimojas. Come here, will you?" Affimojas approached, carrying a small box in his hands. Affimojas was another droid, this one being two meters in height currently, and sporting silver colouring with gold linings and blue accents, as well as a dark red cape. Affimojas did not yet have a combat form like Steamax did, but the boss had been working on it.

"Here you are, master." Affimojas said, handing his boss the box. The boss took the box and turned to Steamax.

"Affi, would you please fix up lunch?" The boss requested, "It's about that time. I'm sure we're all hungry." Affimojas turned and disappeared again into the shadows. The boss opened up the box and seated himself in front of Steamax and set to repairing his hand. "Now then, Maxi. Explain to me... how did you get this wound on your hand?"

"It was a minor mistake." Steamax replied, "When I approached, it was only the four goddess candidates present for battle."

"I see..." the boss said quietly, "so how did that go? What of Rom?"

"One sweep of my blade felled both of the Lowee twins." Steamax replied quickly.

"Yes, I imagine it would." The boss replied, "And how about Uni?"

"Rather than a straight attack, I waited and deflected her fire until she expended her ammo supplies," Steamax noted, "then I had at her throat. I did not cut deep enough to kill. Only to render incapacitated for a time."

"Precision is your friend I see." The boss noted, "And Nepgear?"

"..." Steamax remained silent on this front for a good long time. "Yes..." he said after a while.

"Yes?" The boss said, coming to a pause, "what is yes? Yes what?"

"I choked her unconscious." Steamax answered, "The others were already down."

"Okay..." the boss responded, "so how did this nasty gash across your hand come to be? You haven't noted that anyone gave it to you, and I find it hard to believe that you might have given it to yourself."

"...it was Nepgear." Steamax finally relinquished.

The boss feigned surprise. "Oh, so she DID provide something of a challenge at least?" The boss paused, "how did that occur though? It's hard to imagine anyone getting the best of you."

"I was distracted." Steamax noted, "A mistake I will not make twice." The boss raised an eyebrow in a manner that demanded an explanation. "I... was... speaking."

"Gloating, I suppose?" The boss figured, "and what about?"

"It was less of gloating and more of an argument." Steamax explained, "One of them attempted to assimilate my affinities to their own side. I only made it known that I would not accept their orders."

The boss paused. "I don't suppose they mistook you for the master assassin in the news, did they?" Steamax shook his head, "I don't suppose you made it known that you answer to a master then?" Steamax nodded, "So they know that we are a group. Did you reveal why it was that you were there?"

"No, Master." Steamax said, "I kept that a secret. I promise that I did not reveal your identity, nor why you sent me."

The boss sighed, "Okay... then I suppose it's not too bad then. Just do me a favor in the future, Steamax?" Steamax looked his master in the eye, "Remain attentive until you are positively certain you have secured victory. If not, then you may not be so lucky to escape with as little as a hand injury next time."

Steamax nodded, "Yes, master. My apologies. I beg-"

"At ease, Steamax." The boss interrupted him, "You have done well and completed your mission just as I asked. Sure, you gave away a bit more than I would have appreciated, but that is something we can work around. I'm more concerned about you, though. This is your only injury?" The boss asked this as he finished mending Steamax's hand. Affimojas came back in with a platter. On the platter was three cups and three plates. In two of the cups was oil, and in the third was Lightning Tea. On two of the plates were sandwiches composed of data, and the third carried an array of colourful fruits.

"Here you are, Master." Affimojas said, setting the platter down on the table.

"Thank you, Affi." The boss said, "Oh, and I've prepared your new body and weapon. You will be able to switch between the two just like Steamax can. Your new equipment is in the room over. Grab it after lunch, okay?"

"Yes, master." Affimojas said with a quick nod, "Thank you, master."

The boss turned back to Steamax. Steamax answered his question from before: "My hand was the only part of me wounded." He confirmed, "I am otherwise unharmed."

The boss smiled. "Wonderful. It wouldn't do to have either of you going down on me. Now then..." the boss picked up the teacup with the lightning tea and took the plate with the fruits. "Let's have lunch." It was a quick meal. None of them was hungry enough to need a second helping, but all three of them were hungry enough to eat swiftly. The boss brought Affimojas into the adjacent room where his new upgrade was waiting. The boss installed Affimojas' new upgrade such that he was able to take hi battle state and unsheathe a formidable weapon. His battle body was very much a larger and tougher looking version of his normal body, the only differences being that he now sported a formidable looking helmet, pair of shoulder pads, a waist-guard, and large sabaton-like boots. His weapon was a large violet broadsword with silver edges and gold linings between the edges and center. Rubies adorned the blade towards the tip and towards the grip.

"Thank you, Master." Affimojas said, "I will wear this armour and carry this blade with pride. I will bring you the honour and follow your commands to my final hour."

"Then it sounds like we've got a deal." The boss replied, "I'll do my best to keep you standing out there too. If you get banged up, don't be afraid to have me patch you up, got it?" Affimojas nodded. "Good, in that case, Affi, I got something I need you to do…"

* * *

So that's what was going on in the main storyline. Behind the scenes, I was getting slightly concerned about my time limit. In case anyone needs a refresher, this universe has a bad habit of attempting to get rid of me when I'm here. The tips of my fingers were starting to pixelate and lose focus. If I was judging correctly, I had maybe until the end of the chapter before that started really getting in my way. I stood on the head of a giant stone gargoyle on the edge of what was Arfoire castle. I should clarify; Arfoire and the Deity of Sin that Oliver and the group are fighting are two different entities. The Arfoire that I'm currently fighting is her own faction, separate from the forces of Kurome and Eos. That being said, it seems like she was operating from the background this time, hatching this plan over quite a while. No matter how long she'd been planning this, it was time to bring this plan crashing to the ground. We each had our different roles to play. If this went well, then there wouldn't even really be that much fighting. I waited for Lance to initiate it. From the corner of my eye, Lance charge and split the main gate down the middle with his plasma sword. I dropped from the gargoyle as Viola and Kupo now came in and swept the monsters out, Kupo dual-wielding rifles, and Viola stabbing and shooting with her handgun and rapier. Lance and I now went on ahead as Viola and Kupo covered our backs to make sure no one was coming through behind us. As Lance and I got to the final hall between us and the boss room, we stopped for a moment. The hall was littered with enemies, more than I could really be bothered to count. Lance took the lead and spun through the hall, slashing apart most of the monsters in one smooth motion. I followed behind him, picking off the monsters that Lance's makeshift blade tornado had missed. With that out of the way, Lance covered the hall in case the monsters decided to respawn, and I headed into Arfoire's hall. Arfoire was resting her head on one hand and seemed to know that I'd been coming. Go figure, she probably did know. That aside, I approached until I stood roughly seventy paces from her throne. Arfoire smiled now.

"Congratulations on getting here." She said, "But it's no use. I'm stronger than you could imagine. There's no way you can win this fight. Instead, why not join me? I guarantee you it would be fun."

I raised my middle finger in her direction, "No way, Arfoire. This is my story. You wanna write it, we do it on MY terms."

Arfoire sighed, "Pity. We could've been something." Next, she extended her left hand and blasted the floor the powerful magic. Luckily for me, Arfoire couldn't see my health bar. Deviating from reality, I didn't have one. Because of this, I was able to successfully feign being almost knocked out by the attack. I allowed myself to be sent flying, landing on the floor a few meters away. In a few places I'd been cut or was bleeding, making it furthermore convincing. As Arfoire walked over, I turned and threw my axe in her direction, but she dodged out of the way. The axe flew off into the air and was caught by an invisible force. Suddenly, that force made itself visible, but remained silent. Arfoire didn't even notice Virious until he almost took her head off with the axe blade. I sprang to my feet and grabbed my axe back, and Virious drew several of his daggers between his fingers. I whipped out my revolver and fired off six shots at Arfoire, each one connecting with a satisfying damage number popping up. Virious then loosed his daggers in a fan pattern, knocking Arfoire's health down to nearly nothing. I sprang upwards and Virious rushed forwards and, together, we dealt the final blow to Arfoire in the form of a scissor form attack. Arfoire's body dissolved into pixels, but I knew she wouldn't be gone for good. I smiled, but turned to Virious.

"That'll be all, good sir." I told him. He nodded and faded out of existence. I headed back outside to tell the other three the good news. When the other three had left, I pulled out my pen, it's ink swirling rainbow colours. My airbrush ring had all of its power back, and I could feel words swirling through my mind. I sighed in relief.

It's good to be back.

* * *

 **Now that I can make Author's notes and end slates again, I'm satisfied to say that Puppet Master Chapter Eight is coming along very well. We're looking at 18,000 out of 30,000 words split between two chapters. So yeah, when it's finally done, that'll be two Chapters for the price of one, both of which will be quite full of content, so those of you who like Puppet Master, look forward to that quite soon. I don't have any new comments to reply to.**

 **Leave a Comment and let me know what you thought!**

 **And with that, I hope you all have a lovely evening, and be it here or anywhere elsewhere, may we meet again upon another chapter. Good Night, Everyone!**


	33. I Know You're Coming

**A/n: [Insert witty author's note here.]**

* * *

X/XX/T+01

x/xx/T + 01 - 1:08PM

I start keeping my diary. It might be good to have in case I lose my memory again. I have more answers than I have questions, but for the moment being, I have more things to focus on. I've used 'Boss' for my name because it's what the people call me. It wouldn't do to have them figuring out who I am if I drop this somewhere on accident.

x/xx/T + 01 - 1:26PM

I'm writing this entry after the following one appeared. Entries are showing up before I write them with future times. I would do well to heed their advice, evening if they are faked. If they are indeed nothing but a ruse, then someone is trying to throw me off. I would certainly prefer the former. I cannot control time, but if I could read the future, then I might better extend my longevity.

x/xx/T + 01 - 2:34PM

Affimojas is back from his mission. I'm glad to see him back in one piece. He's brought me a very intriguing stone. It might make a nice weapon or piece of armour.

x/xx/T + 01 - 2:35PM

The above entry is correct. I should confirm one or two more before I accept these as truth, however.

x/xx/T + 01 - 4:37PM

I note an irregularity... The candidates seem to be taking a much different order than I anticipated. Normally I would have expected them to obtain the mascots before collecting the original CPUs and facing off against the CFWs and eventually the deity. The readers have probably played, or at least know of, the second game. The order is different. They head out to collect the first mascot, the one in Planeptune, today. I should get to it and grab it first.

x/xx/T + 01 - 5:00PM

I beat the CPUs and the makers to the mascot, but I don't evacuate the premises quickly enough. They saw me. Luckily for me, the black, wide-brimmed hat I wear upon my head, in tandem with my black jacket and pants kept my identity well hidden. I did get my white undershirt dirty in my escape, though. Guess I'm going all black tomorrow.

* * *

X/XX/T+02

x/xx/T + 02 - 9:30AM

A statue is raised in honor of that kid I killed a few days ago. What was his name? Jayden? That sounds about right. I'd like to see this statue for myself. Sure would be a shame if anything happened to it.

* * *

Maxi looked up, seeing Purple Heart come out and greet the crowd of people. She called to the crowd and asked for a moment of silence to lament Jayden's demise. Maxi lowered his head and closed his eyes, the entire plaza falling silent. One man in a black jacket coughed extremely loudly; a successive round of noise interrupting the quiet area. Some people glared his way, but his large-rimmed black hat made it impossible to see his face. Maxi could see him grin under his hat. It made Maxi sick to see that some people could be so insensitive. Then again, Maxi wasn't really one to talk. The man checked his watch, tapping his foot as if he was waiting for something. Maxi turned to Oliver, who was staring the man down. Maxi glanced back at the man, noting that, not only was he in all black but, on his back, the man had a bag. It looked something like a camera bag, but Maxi couldn't sense any sort of complicated machinery in the bag. He turned back to Oliver. Oliver leaned over to Maxi, careful to be quiet, seeing as Purple Heart Had started talking again. Oliver whispered to him: "You see him?" Maxi nodded, "Can you sense what's in the bag?" Maxi's brow creased and he frowned at Oliver and shook his head. Oliver nodded slowly. "Got it, he's trying to be stealthy about this then." Oliver noted. Maxi looked at the man, then back at Oliver.

"You know, with that outfit, I'm not surprised. Now what are you talking about? His bag seems empty to me." Oliver looked Maxi in the eye.

"Maxi, that man has a bomb." Maxi's eyes bulged as he looked back at Oliver, panic in his eyes. If that bomb went off here, a lot of people would get killed, and a lot more would get injured pretty badly. Purple Heart suddenly flew over and whipped off a sheet, revealing the statue of Jayden that had been built in his honor. Maxi and Oliver both turned to the statue to see the reveal.

"That's an awfully nice statue. Would be a shame if something happened to it." Maxi heard someone say. Maxi wasn't sure who it was, but he was almost sure that he recognized that voice. Maxi turned in its direction and looked around, noting that the man had also disappeared. Maxi nudged Oliver's shoulder and pointed the problem out. Oliver nodded in silent agreement and he quietly summoned his blade, Maxi readied his spear, and they slipped into the crowd.

Maxi had gotten himself lost pretty quickly. The only real landmark he had to work off of was Jayden's statue seeing as everything else was concealed by the sea of people. Maxi couldn't find the man, no matter how hard he tried, so he decided to try a different approach. Maxi worked his way out of the crowd and scaled a building, viewing the area from up above. Maxi surveyed the area three or four time before he finally saw the man again, and by that point, it was too late. The man was standing by the foot of the statue and took off his bag. In one swift motion, the man pushed several by standers aside and tossed the bomb straight up in the air. When the bomb went off, the statue crumbled, but somehow... no one was injured? Maxi flew at the man in a rage, only to hit the ground where the man was standing before. Maxi quickly righted himself and faced down the man, his face still concealed. The man grinned slightly.

[̶x̶/̶x̶x̶/̶T̶ ̶+̶ ̶0̶2̶ ̶-̶ ̶1̶0̶̶̶:̶̶̶5̶̶̶3̶̶̶A̶M̶ ̶-̶ ̶A̶f̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶I̶ ̶b̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶t̶u̶e̶,̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶a̶t̶t̶a̶c̶k̶s̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶b̶e̶h̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶k̶i̶l̶l̶s̶ ̶m̶e̶.̶]̶

Oliver came from behind and swiped his blade at the man at a blinding speed. In any other situation, Oliver would have cleaved the man in half, but he'd missed. How had he missed? This was a first. The man now stood behind Oliver with a grin still on his face.

[̶x̶/̶x̶x̶/̶T̶ ̶+̶ ̶0̶2̶ ̶-̶ ̶1̶0̶:̶5̶4A̶M̶ ̶-̶ A̶n̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶t̶t̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶e̶s̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶b̶e̶h̶i̶n̶d̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶l̶a̶s̶h̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶a̶b̶l̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶l̶e̶f̶t̶ ̶a̶r̶m̶.̶]̶

Jayden's Neptune seemed to appear from thin air. Instead of a fatal slash, she tried to be tactical and cut the back of one of his arms and disable its use. This attempt only failed as well as the man slipped aside and allowed Neptune to miss and go right past him. At this point, the man raised one arm and blew the rest of what remained of the statue to oblivion with some kind of weapon in his hand. Was it a gun? Maybe a magic spear of some kind?

"What is seen in shadow is often mistaken in the eyes of the unknowing." he said. Then, his mission seemingly accomplished, the man disappeared again.

[x/xx/T + 02 10:55AM - The statue seems to have broken. At least I was able to prevent anyone from getting hurt.]

* * *

x/xx/T + 02 12:30PM

I am recognized. It seems that the CPUs and candidates do not appreciate my public stunt. It has been confirmed that I am the same one who interrupted them yesterday during the debacle with the mascot. It's not my fault that they're too slow.

x/xx/T + 02 - 2:30PM

Someone requests my services. They need a monster assassinated in Mechtro factory. The mission reads...

To: The Boss

From: Magatama

Content: One of our robots has gone rogue and started tearing up the rest of the factory. We could use some assistance in 'convincing' it to stop.

Reply: I believe the robot will find that I am quite persuasive. I will assess payment when I arrive on scene. Expect my arrival in five minutes.

x/xx/T + 02 - 2:45PM

I arrive home from the mission. That was hardly a challenge. I only asked for 1000 credits for it, which is hardly the price of a meal. He gave me 2000.

x/xx/T + 02 - 6:45PM

I receive another email. Someone needs something done. I operate 24/7. Let's hear what they have to say.

To: The Boss

From: Corduroy and Cashmere

Content: Going on a hunt tomorrow. Could use another member in the party, or at least an escort. Expect 10,000 credits for your efforts as a baseline. Extra Credits and Items may be added to payment in correspondence to the day's events.

Reply: I appreciate the offer, but I don't do all-day events for anything less than 20,000. I don't need items, and their sell price makes no difference. I am not a party member you can hire or buy. If that's what you're looking for, then buy some DLC. At any rate, good luck on your hunt.

Customer's follow-up: I know of DLC, but I would really prefer that it be your services. I know you never fail. I am willing to pay you up to 50,000 credits if the day goes well. If not, then I will compensate you 35,000 for having wasted your time.

Reply: I'll dispatch someone to deal with it. What time do you intend to start?

Customer's follow-up: I need you personally. Your lackeys will not do. Please arrive 7:30AM the latest.

Reply: I reserve the right to provide my services to those who I want and withhold it from others. Do not insult and/or underestimate my subordinates. You can handle your questing yourself.

Customer's follow-up: My deepest apologies. I will pay 200,000 credits to have you personally escort me and my party on the hunt tomorrow at 7:30AM to 7:30PM.

(That's a lot of money for that kind of job...)

Reply: Start with that next time. I'll be there.

[x/xx/T + 03 - 9:00AM - I am played for a fool. This quests I've been hired for is a trap. The CPUs and company are here. I should be more careful when accepting requests in the future.]

* * *

X/XX/T+03

x/xx/T + 03 - 7:30AM

They are late. I know not how many of them there are, but I know that they said 7:30 the latest. I am here. Where are they?

x/xx/T + 03 - 7:32AM

Late, but present. Time to get working. There are seven people in the party; it seems like a group of NPCs under Cave's command for the RRoD. Normally I don't do this kind of work, but I'll put up with it this time. I'd better keep an eye open. There's no question that they suspect I'm Jayden's killer, but whether they've come to act on it or not, I'm unsure. Well, no. That's a lie. I know this is a trap; I'm just waiting to see how this plays out. Affi and Maxi are following from nearby, but out of sight. When in doubt, I'll make a quick escape like I normally do. The citizens of Gamindustri are so into magic and the like, but technology far outperforms magic. Let's just see...

x/xx/T + 03 - 8:55AM

Okay, yeah. These guys are total amateurs. Either that or they're not even trying to make it discreet that this is a trap. One of them is blatantly repeatedly calling Cave. Another has been trying to convince me to be the head of the group. Yeah, like that's not a total setup. How dumb do they think I am? How dumb do they think Jayden was that he would be killed by someone as dumb as that? I'm almost offended. I'm just gonna cross this one out now:

[̶x̶/̶x̶x̶/̶T̶ ̶+̶ ̶0̶3̶ ̶-̶ ̶9̶:̶0̶0̶A̶M̶ ̶-̶ ̶I̶ ̶a̶m̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶o̶o̶l̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶q̶u̶e̶s̶t̶s̶ ̶I̶'̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶h̶i̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶p̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶C̶P̶U̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶.̶ ̶I̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶e̶f̶u̶l̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶e̶p̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶r̶e̶q̶u̶e̶s̶t̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶u̶t̶u̶r̶e̶.̶]̶

I could leave now, but I'm almost curious to see how poorly this unfolds.

x/xx/T + 03 - 9:01AM

Here we go.

* * *

Oliver waited patiently. His time was coming, but he had to let the goddesses have the first shot. Maxi was somewhere nearby, and Jayden's Neptune was somewhere by Maxi. Oliver bit back his pride. If he got the chance to level his blade at this fiend, then it was certain that he'd probably use some of his less honorable tactics. But, again... the CPUs of this timeline had requested the first attack. It would fail, he already knew (Someone who took out Jayden wouldn't fall to the meager attack force of the CPUs), so Oliver obliged in giving them the first advance. It wouldn't be long before he got his chance. Oliver watched as the plan unfolded almost perfectly to start with, then spiraled into a small whirlwind of sadness and failure. The Boss was standing right where he needed to be, and Cave's units had left the area. Uni attacked first, the bullet carrying the rage of losing her 'brother' for the second time. Oliver couldn't tell whether the bullet missed or if maybe The Boss had done something to make it miss? Either way, Uni's bullet didn't even get close to hitting its target, let alone doing any damage or inflicting the status effects it was supposed to. Rom and Ram followed up second, launching a powerful magic attack. That is to say, they tried; the magic fizzled out in their hands before inflicting the damage or status it was supposed to. Seeing as all of their mana had very much just gone down the drain, Rom and Ram retreated for the moment being. Vert attacked next, throwing her spear with a casing a green energy on it. That was when the real fun began.

The Boss jumped back and dodged the spear, observing as Nepgear, Uni, Noire, Blanc, and Vert came out of hiding. He didn't seem intimidated in the slightest. Uni fired another bullet which had the same result as the first. Nepgear advanced and tried to unleash a Mirage Dance, succeeding only in damaging herself after failing the attack. Blanc followed up with a **Tanzerin Trombe** , only to miss and fall flat on her face as well. Before anyone could attack any further, The Boss loosed a round of anti-share crystal tranquilizer shots. The rest of the standing goddesses were effectively incapacitated. Maxi, prepared as he was, revealed himself and teleported the CPUs and Candidates out of there with the help of a teleportation core. Maxi then brandished his spear and held it out behind himself, holding the other arm forward. Maxi's eyes blazed to life, an actual blood-red flame bursting from his left eye. His spear burst into flames next, and Maxi began using his metal manipulation powers, his arms encasing themselves in the strange metal from chapter 24, forming silvery crimson gauntlets. The Boss didn't even flinch or really blink at this. Matter of fact, he stretched up high and yawned at Maxi's advance. At this moment, Neptune revealed herself as well, drawing her dual blades, her handguns resting in holsters at her sides. Neptune then activated HDD, then even went so far as to activate her CGU form beyond her CPU body. The Boss scoffed; had he seen this before? Neptune's CGU form was quite similar to her CPU form, except for some minor details.

Her CGU body was taller and more graceful. Her body was clothed in her usual bodysuit which was made from some sort of material which was as flexible as she was, yet more durable than most materials that had ever been known to exist. On her legs were black and neon purple metal boots which had propulsion units in the heels. Her wings were larger and more powerful, sporting a design similar to butterfly wings made of cyan and bright purple metal. Her arms were covered by black metal gauntlets that were smooth, yet still powerful. In other words, Neptune had stepped her game up. Oliver had half a mind to reveal himself, but remained hidden until he could provide a noteworthy boon or advantage with the element of surprise. His time would come, he was certain.

The Boss stood where he was. He didn't seem particularly active and relied more so on attack range than his own range of motion. With one swift motion, Neptune spun her blades and lunged forwards. Maxi swung in from the left as Neptune charged front, creating an irregular attack area. As unpredictable as it may have seemed, The Boss merely countered both attacks at once. Maxi had to take a step back and rub his eyes. Had he missed something? This guy hadn't even drawn a weapon... how had he countered both of them at once? Before he could reassess what his next move was, he was pulled out of the way by Neptune as a bullet ripped through a tree behind him. Looking over, The Boss had drawn a sniper rifle... was it some kind of magic rifle, or just a really high tech one? Maxi couldn't tell from this distance, but he kind of respected The Boss's ability to use such a weapon. Maxi took a slight step before he began spinning his spear in a circle, deflecting bullets and slowly advancing. Neptune advanced behind him as the two crept closer, but when Maxi went to land a hit The Boss was nowhere to be found. He suddenly appeared behind them with an interesting looking sword in his hand. The sword had a crimson blade with a cyan edge, but was shaped exactly like Gehaburn. Maxi didn't have time to think about what this weapon could have been before one strike from it had downed both Neptune and himself. Maxi swore under his breath, but remembered that Oliver was nearby and that he'd have this under control. Maxi readied another teleporter core and left the area. The Boss stood straight up and sheathed his sword. Oliver noted the clever placement of the scabbard, it was concealed from sight.

"Do you plan on hiding and observing without action?" The Boss suddenly asked, "I've known you were there the entire time. I can respect silent espionage, but I'll be on my way now if you have no intention of doing anything else."

"Not at all, I would consider that wasting your time." Oliver said as he jumped up and landed before The Boss. "Also, for those readers who like music to go with their fight scenes, a remix of the Masked Dedede Battle would do quite well for this scene."

"How fitting." The Boss noted, "The King versus The Hero. Now here comes the question of which of us is which? An Exalt is very nearly a king, but many call you a hero. I may be the king of my field of work, but again, maybe there is a side of me you do not know? We'll let those observing decided who is who."

"Let's cut the chatter." Oliver said, "Dramatic speeches maybe be fun, but I've better things to do than talk." Oliver readied his silver blade, and The Boss merely fixed his sleeves. "I hope you know that I consider this vengeance for Jayden. In his absence, we are considerably lesser."

"I think you misunderstand." The Boss replied, "What you think is lost may never have left."

"Your cryptic bullshit is starting to annoy me." Oliver said, drawing back his blade. "I'm ending this here."

Moving at speeds over those comprehensible by the human mind, Oliver rushed forth only to slash at thin air. With every strike he took, The Boss was one step ahead of him, both literally and figuratively. Every step Oliver took resulted in The Boss taking either a defensive step in the opposite direction, or an evasive step to the side. Just when he thought he had him, The Boss lurched backwards, flipping up and over the horizontal slash, and cleanly out of the way. Oliver jumped up.

 **"Burst Lance!"**

Oliver dove at The Boss with his sword out, thrusting it towards him, forming multiple light swords as he attacked. This special attack was a full frontal assault from hundreds of angles at once. No matter what The Boss did, this attack was inescapable. Just as Oliver went to connect, there was a flash of shining gold. Oliver was astonished to see that The Boss hadn't taken any damage. On his arm, and between the two of them, was a large, golden-coloured shield that encompassed the entirety of The Boss's front. The sides had extended out to the side, yet had maintained integrity and blocked the attack. The Boss smiled as Oliver jumped back, putting twenty yards of distance between them.

"Someone didn't read chapter four." The Boss said. Before Oliver could comprehend what that meant he caught a flying shield in the face. As he hit the ground, The Boss grabbed and pulled back the shield with a grappling beam from his wrist. Clearly Oliver had underestimated this foe. That battle had been much shorter than he had expected, and frankly, he couldn't really continue. Whatever kind of energy had been put behind that shield attack, it had drained Oliver almost completely. Oliver swallowed his pride and disappeared. He would get another chance eventually. The Boss sighed and turned, walking away. As he walked away, he pulled out his diary. "For as much good as you do me, if someone like Ollie gets his hands on you, then you become my downfall." he said to the diary, "Sorry about this." As The Boss walked away, he quietly lit a match and put it between the pages on the book. After doing this, he dropped the book on the ground and continued walking past it. The book burned to ash behind him, leaving nothing readable. He chuckled as he walked away.

"I wonder how many people piece this one together between chapters."

* * *

 **A/N: Well here's an end slate in which I have nothing to say.**

 **Also, in response to Mr. Moppin Glow:** Hey I am reading it now...Baka  
 **The only thing I have to say is...** hOi.

 **Now then, I'm uploading this around noon, so I can't really say have a lovely evening, but I'm gonna say it anyway. I hope you have a lovely evening, and let's meet for coffee later or something. I dunno. My normal outro doesn't really work here...**


	34. A return

**A/N: Oh my gods, he's not dead! I started school recently, and that's taken priority over pretty much everything else, so yeah, my uploads will be slower. Sorry about that. It's been over a month since I published anything... Geez. Without further ado, here...**

 **HDN;Paradox, Chapter Thirty Four: _A Return?_**

* * *

The Young Prince stood strong. The Black Knight stood across from him, her other coloured allies standing at her sides. Together, there were three of them. The Prince sighed. "I should have seen this coming." he said calmly, pushing his golden hair to the side, "Of course the three of you would resort to such cowardly tactics as this. What else did I expect? You are, all of you, cowards; too afraid to face the truth, or to simply face each other one to one. Furthermore, you seem to be under the delusion that I am going to..." he paused, "...how they say... come quietly. I have no intention of dying here. I have a full life ahead of me. You three on the other hand... You decided that I was the best to be removed now, rather than to be standing later. You've made the wrong choice." The Prince held out his hand, and a pulse of lightning slowly etched a long silver blade into existence in his hand. The silver sword shone in the darkly lit room. "Let us see how well you can hold true those skills you claim to hold."

"Yeah right." The White Knight barked, "We won't let you have your fricken' way!"

"I hope you can entertain me a little bit, at least." The Black Knight taunted.

"You should feel honored..." The Green Knight said, "...To be able to face me!" a spear formed in her hand. The White Knight materialized an axe, and the Black Knight followed up with a sword.

The Young Prince merely sighed again, "Alright." he said, "Then, if there's no changing your mind. We will have our battle. I understand you are out for blood, specifically mine at the moment, but as I said before..." He smiled. "I will live through today. Come at me!"

The White Knight attacked first, "I'm goin' all out! Teeeeeeeeey-YAH!" Her axe made a wide, round slash around the area, covering a solid meter or so in any direction, but The Prince was no longer in that spot. She must have missed him stepping backwards.

"You're wide open." The Prince's voice came from right in front of her, and just like that, there was a blade in her face. He'd clearly stopped, sparing her life in that instant, but the White Knight slashed his blade away and took another swing. It had just about the same effect as the first. Tiring of his antics, she brought her blade up and slammed it downwards towards his skull, only to find the blade lodged in the floor. "Pity. I just had that floor redone." The Prince's voice was behind her now.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" The Black Knight's condescending laughter came from the left. "I'll slice you in HALF!" The Prince managed to tip her blade back just slightly, and significantly reduce the impact, but he still took the full force of the blow to the side. He flew backwards a short distance, then skidded to a stop.

"You've met your match today!" The Green knight flew in from the side, then attacked from above. She drove her spear downwards towards The Prince, only for him to move once more. The Green Knight followed up with a flurry of stabs, none of which connected. "It's over!" The Green Knight yelled as she locked her spear up against his sword. He stood his ground well, much better than she could exert force against.

"You're mine!"

"I'll finish this!"

The White and Black Knights came in from his side once more. Having his blade locked up against Green's, he had no viable defense. He tensed up, threw Green Heart back, then braced himself for the impact which would soon follow.

"Disappear!" the Black and White Knights yelled in unison as they struck out against him.

He hit the ground and skidded back about fifty meters. When he came to a stop, he rolled backwards and wound up on his knees. He planted one foot against the ground, then paused with the other knee still down on the floor. He planted his hand atop his knee, then heaved a few breaths. Electricity arced along his body in various places. Then suddenly, before anyone could react, a phoenix dove in from the large, open, circular skylight, and gave a powerful flap, flying just over The Young Prince's head. The Prince drove the blade of his sword into the ground, then clapped his hands together just below the phoenix. There was a blinding flash of light, and finally the Coloured Knights could see him again. From his left eye blazed a blood-red flame. His eyes sharpened into a piercing yellow, and he raised his silver blade into a ready position, holding it with one hand, and holding the other out in front of him. He seemed to blaze with vitality, while still maintaining an aura that suggested death was near. He was on his feet once more. His breathing had returned to normal. He seemed almost relaxed even.

"It's high time you receive your comeuppance, Prince." The Green Knight taunted him, "Why not just give up and make it easier?"

"In your dreams." The Prince retorted, "I was careless in assuming this would be easy, but I can assure you that I won't go down without a fight. To think the three of you would join forces... You were my friends once." he sighed, "Once."

"Oh come on!" The Black Knight said, "It only makes sense to lower the head count one at a time like this."

"It would be a pain if you wound up being the last one standing," The White Knight added, "So we're beating you down first!"

"Ah..."The Prince said with a bit of pain in his voice, "If only Maxi could be with me here now. He'd be proud."

"I think it's a bit late for regrets now." The White Knight spat, "Get ready to die!"

"Please rest assured..." The Green Knight said, "... we won't torture you. Expect a swift and clean death."

"Leave the finishing blow for me!" The Black Knight closed.

The Prince laughed. "Even against the three of you at once, I will not succumb to the clutches of death. Victory will be mine!" The Prince spun his silver sword, one edge of the blade erupting into flames, the other being lit up by lightning. "Your life will be taken by my hands!"

(Cue your favorite remix of Ghost Fight)

The Young Prince takes his Final Stand!

The Black Knight approaches saying something about... "baka?"

The White Knight staggers up, readying her axe!

The Green Knight advances with the utmost elegance!

The Prince Out-speeds the Knights!

The Prince holds his blade over his head and takes a defensive stance! "First to act, first to fall!"

The Knights retaliate!

The Black Knight lashes out with sonic speed assault combos!

The Prince's blade possesses the speed of light!

The Speed of Light Out-speeds sound!

The Black Knight's attack is rendered useless!

The White Knight smashes her axe into the ground!

The Prince is nowhere near the impact!

The Green Knight unleashes a flurry of stabs!

The Prince evades the attack and counters!

The Green knight takes 1023 damage!

The Prince finds an opportunity to act once more!

The Prince unleashes **Zap Cannon!** _"Hear the Thunder, Fall to the Lightning!"_

The Black Knight takes 6999 damage!

The White Knight takes 7016 damage!'

The Green Knight takes 6987 damage!

The Prince gauges his time correctly and lets loose another attack!

The Prince uses **Superior Mimicry: Cross Combo!** _"Does this attack look familiar to you, I wonder?"_

The Black Knight takes 8984 damage!

The Green Knight takes 8670 damage!

The White Knight takes 8999 damage!

The Knights attack again!

The Green Knight uses **Spiral Break**! _"Your overconfidence will be your defeat!"_

The Prince evades all eleven rushes and takes no damage!

The Black Knight uses **Infinite Slash!** " _I will end you in one go_!"

The Prince takes 1456 damage!

The White Knight uses Tanzerin Trombe! _"I'll crush you!"_

The Prince takes 12906 damage!

The Prince weighs his options...

Passive ability engages! **{Phoenix Blessing}**

The Prince regains 10000 HP!

The Princes generates _Adrenaline!_

The Prince unleashes his **{Limit Breaker!}**

 **Argent Falchion Apocalypse** _"I will have your lives now!"_

The Black Knight takes 66666 damage!

The Green Knight 66666 damage!

The White Knight takes 66666 damage!

Somehow... the Knights are still standing!

The Black Knight attacks!

The Prince takes 9999 damage!

The Green Knight attacks!

The Prince takes 12092 damage!

The White Knight unleashes her **{Limit Breaker!}**

 **Collapsing Star Execution** _"Take this you cocky bastard!"_

The Prince takes 999999999 damage!

The Prince falls!

 **(End of Music)**

The Prince's breathing was heaving once again. "I see. Then so be it." he said, "If I am to fall here... then that is how it will be." The Prince took his blade and drove it's sharp edge into the ground. " **Goodbye** " With his blade in the ground, he released the rest of his energy, destroying the arena and the Knights along with his trusted sword. As he sighed, mourning the loss of his blade, he quickly got over it as he observed the words cross his vision:

 _ **[PLAYER 4; VICTORY!]**_

* * *

Noire practically squealed. "Really?!" she shrieked, "you had that this whole time, but you save it right until then to use it? Why waste our time?"

Blanc set her controller down. "It's just a game, Noire." Noire huffed.

"Oh Noire, do try and relax that puffed out chest a bit?" Vert suggested, "Your natural tsundere is quite enough on its own."

Oliver set his controller down. "Sorry to walk out like this, but I've got something else I need to do at the moment. Mind if I come back later, maybe?"

"Sure." Vert told him, "You are welcome to join me in my Basilicom at any time to stay a while and play games."

"Right thanks." Oliver replied, "I'll probably take you up on that at some point." after that, he left and stepped outside. He needed somewhere to sit for a moment. He turned around and looked up. Well yeah, that would do.

* * *

Oliver sat atop the roof of the Leanbox Basilicom. 'I think you misunderstand. What you think is lost may never have left.' What did that mean?

"You choose the most interesting places to chill." Maxi commented. Oliver turned to see the redhead walking up behind him. "How did you even get up here?"

"I could ask you the same question." Oliver retorted, "It's quite impressive what you pull off. Considering that you're a human, who's only tech implant is your eye scanner, the fact that you can do what you can is quite amazing."

"I think you're just underestimating humans." Maxi said, "I don't have very incredible physical prowess, but I have brains. Maybe that's more important." Oliver could've sworn that Maxi had a small conversation with himself in the moment after he spoke, but Oliver ignored it. Both Maxi and Jayden had a history of talking to themselves. Granted for Jayden it was more talking to people who weren't there, and for Maxi it was more talking to someone who seemed to be in his head, but to Oliver, there wasn't much difference there. "That aside, I also have metal magic." Oliver sighed. He was trying to look past that, but Maxi was right. That did make a substantial difference. "So why'd you choose Leanbox's Basilicom?"

"Well two reasons." Oliver said, sitting down and leaning back, his legs hanging over the edge of the roof, "The first of which being a side series that 24 created, that will never be read by the internet, in which I was portrayed as a pseudo brother to Vert after having completed the events of the first game. The second being because this Basilicom has the least distractions. All of the people who normally peruse the shops and stores, or otherwise walk the streets, are in this building over here..." he pointed to a large building in the center of the nation. It was very much a Colosseum type of building. "They're all at the Otakuthon Convention. Also, this Nation has a normal temperature, if just a bit warmer than normal, and has the fewest aerial monsters. Planeptune is too loud, Lastation has too much aerial pollution, and Lowee is much to cold to focus. Even if I could get past the cold, they have several types of monsters which can fly and typically fly over the cities. I'm not looking to aggro anything. Anything I aggro here..." Oliver tossed a small silver hatchet up over his shoulder. Maxi snatched it out of the air and threw it directly into the face of a swooping bird monster which promptly burst into pixels. "...is easy enough to take care of."

"Fair enough." Maxi replied, "What are you thinking about that requires such focus? Is it what The Boss said last chapter about how Jayden may not really be gone?"

Oliver turned around with a confused expression, "How'd you hear about that? I haven't told anyone about that yet."

"I know you didn't." Maxi replied dully, "You don't tell anyone anything. I went back and read the chapter on my phone."

"Well, good on you for that one, I guess." Oliver said, not bothering to try and argue the point, "And yes, that's what I'm thinking about. Is it possible that Jayden is indeed still out there?"

"Do you mean is it possible that he faked his death or something?" Maxi asked, "It's possible, and quite likely, after all, what would have been the actual cause of death? The only problem that stands in our way is the reasoning of why?"

"Yeah," Oliver noted, "There doesn't seem to be a reason, not to us anyway. Knowing Jayden, his explanation only makes sense to him and no one else."

"That's true..." Maxi said, narrowing his eyes, "But the only way to uncover more clues than we already have at the moment is to advance the plot, so I recommend we make an attack on the CFWs. Not the Deity of Sin, specifically the CFWs. If my memory serves me correctly, then each CFW carries a part of the Deity within themselves. I don't think we've released that from them yet. If we release the part of the Deity from the CFWs before she's ready to receive it, then we might be able to catch the Deity off guard and potentially double or even quadruple our chances of success."

Oliver blinked once, then twice. "How do you come up with these things? That's so genius, yet so obvious at the same time. How didn't anyone else think of that?"

"Because it's in the script." Maxi said, "And before you note that I'm not taking this seriously, that's in the script as well. I can afford to be silly. I'm me. The character I'm based off of was a high-school kid who was about as silly as they come. His name was Shugo."

"I don't think he was silly so much as he was just a bit dense." Oliver quickly shot back, "To be fair to Shugo, you can be quite dense yourself. Also, most of the characters of this universe can be quite dense. Jayden was the best example of this."

"Is the best example." Maxi corrected, "He's still alive out there, I know he is. Someone like Jayden doesn't simply kick the bucket, you know what? I'll prove it." Maxi pulled out a mask. It was a mask that seemed just about the size of his face, and it had minimal details. In an unsettling red was a decorative drop spilling out from the eyes and the mouth. "Myous, hello, I'm sure you know who Jayden is?" The mask indicated a positive response, "Yeah, go find and help him." Myous enveloped himself in an bright orange light and took off towards the sky, then rocketed off in another direction. "There, see? That wouldn't work if Jayden was dead."

"Why didn't we start with that?" Oliver asked, "That seems like a pretty reliable method of-"

"Ssssshh..." Maxi put one finger up to Oliver's lips, "It's in the script. Let's just get ready to move."

* * *

The Boss sat in his chair at the end of the hall. Steamax and Affimojas were getting ready for the day. Something told him that today was going to be an important one, and one that would change the course of how this timeline would end, but maybe not in a way that he favored. His eyes were locked onto the laptop sitting on the table in front of him. He was waiting for the message. He knew it was coming. He closed his eyes for a moment, contemplating what it might be. In that moment that he had his eyes closed, the message arrived.

To: The Boss

From: Histoire

Content: I know you normally ignore requests that pertain to us, and normally act on your own terms when it comes to the Deity and her revival process, but I need to request your help. Today, in twenty minutes from the time that I submit this message to you, the CPUs and CPU candidates will be going to the Graveyard with Oliver and Maxi. I doubt I need to inform you of who those people are. You seem quite knowledgeable. It's not that I doubt their ability to fight, nor their ability to work together and overcome obstacles, but I just need some extra assurance. They've already been sent in once, and that resulted in the CPUs being kidnapped and everyone else being very critically injured. Now that I am sending them in again, I do not wish for the same mistake to be repeated.

I know this seems like a trap to you, but there's nothing I can do or say to change your mind if that's what you think. The only thing I can tell you is that this is most certainly not a trap. I am willing to pay you any price for this mission. Ten million credits? It's yours if you want it. Ten Billion? One Hundred Trillion? It doesn't matter. Just ensure their safety.

Please.

The Boss had to think about that. It was risky, and could be anything. But somehow, he came to a decision quite quickly. He smiled, and said quietly, "I'm done playing by your rules." before sending his response.

Reply: Consider it Done. No payment Necessary.

"Affi! Maxi!" The Boss called, "There is work to be done!"

* * *

And now for something that nobody saw coming...

Luno awoke somewhere he was unfamiliar with. Somehow, he was unfazed by this. Frankly, the whole waking up somewhere unfamiliar was actually quite familiar. He got to his feet, his eye brightening as he stood. He observed his hand, noting that it was metal. He went to deactivate the Core of Shadows, but found that he was unable to. Different timeline: different rules. Luno sighed and had a look around. It looked almost similar to something he'd seen before, so Luno tasked himself with exploring around it to see what he could find. To say the least, it was a bit underwhelming. There was a small village of people who didn't seem to particularly belong to a nation. That was the only interesting bit. Luno had to say he preferred the forest. Being in his metal form meant that he had no need to eat or drink anything, so he isolated himself instead. His vocal functions had ceased to work. In other words, he couldn't speak. There was no way to fix that, not like this at least. A few days passed without anything eventful happening. Luno soon began to realize that his armor was breaking. He had forgotten what was underneath. Was there anything underneath the metal in this form? There had to be. If there wasn't... then was was about to happen to him? There was only one was to find out. Seeing no point in trying to keep the armor on, Luno set about loosening it and slowly pulling it off. The armor was dented and broken, so there was no reason to keep it, and no reason to try and reattach it. Piece by piece, Luno stripped the armor from his body until he got down to just the box on his head. Luno slowly reached up and pulled the box off, then walked over to a small spring of water. Looking at his reflection in the water, his skin was pitch black. His arms and legs were thin and long, almost comparable to skinny sticks. His fingers were much the same, and he reminded himself of a thin tree. There was nothing at the bottom of his legs, they simply ended in points, but that didn't seem to impede his balance. Matter of fact, without the heavy armor, he was much quicker. His head was very much a sphere at the end of his neck with two small red circles that were probably his eyes. He noted that he didn't seem to have a mouth. Luno found that this form was the difference between his human form and his golem form. Maybe there was some way to change back to human later? Again, there was only one real way to find out, and Luno set out to find it. At least, he was about to set out to find it when he heard something rustling up in the trees. An arrow lodged itself in his side, and Luno whipped around, his red eyes glowing and seething with rage. He caught the second arrow and cut the third in half with his hand. Small red energy flames leaked from Luno's eyes as he located his target. They seemed to be people from the village. It was understandable that they would be less inclined to be diplomatic when he looked like this. At the same time, there was no need to start shooting arrows at him! Luno slowly began lumbering towards them, neon blue energy leaking from his hands, causing another flame-like effect. If he wanted to drive off the hunters without hurting them, he was going to need something special. Something like a special attack... Luno tried to see if he could cast any specials in this form.

Recollections

No one had spoken, but somehow, everyone heard it. It was almost as if they'd all heard it in their minds, like they had all thought of it at the same time. to Luno's surprise, small music notes encircled the hunters' heads for a moment before they all turned, one by one, and walked away. Luno would've heaved a sigh if he had a mouth, but he didn't. Instead, he turned to assess the arrow in his side. Trying to pull it out only resulted in pain, and he felt like it was getting worse every time he tried. After a while, he gave up and left it there. Luno spent most of the days from that point lazing about around the forest. It was two or three weeks worth of time when things suddenly changed.

As usual, Luno was resting, leaning up against a tree, when he felt something on his back. Luno looked over to see a little girl asleep across his shoulders. She was wearing a white dress that came down to her knees and she looked to be about the age of five or six. Her hair was an interesting colour, too bright to be brown, but too dark to be dirty blonde. Her eyes were also interesting. Luno couldn't exactly tell what colours her eyes were. Everytime he looked at them they changed. Then again, her eyes were closed at the moment. Luno had to examine her eyes through her lids, which was harder than one might think. His time of being isolated had made his attitude a bit brittle, his reaction being to shrug the girl off his shoulders onto the floor. The girl awoke upon tumbling off his shoulders and looked up at him with her colourful eyes. Luno waved one hand in a gesture which pretty much told her to leave. The girl carefully got to her feet, then walked off into the forest. Luno figured that the girl had come from that same small village he'd seen a few days ago. That had to be the case, right? Luno went back to resting, but it wasn't much later that he was interrupted again. The same little girl was leaning on his side, observing some of the flowers that were growing around where Luno was sitting. Luno pushed her off gently and she slightly tumbled over on her side. Luno eased against the tree once more, only to feel something on his back once more. He turned slightly to see the little girl climbing up his back. He sighed. Luno leaned back, the girl slipping and falling on her backside behind him. Suddenly, Luno felt a sharp pain his his side. Luno slammed to his feet, glaring at the little girl behind him until he saw what she was holding. Luno's eyes lost their rage and loosened up as he realized where it had come from as well. The girl had somehow removed the arrow from his side. Luno looked at where the arrow had been a moment ago. There was no wound. Luno looked at the girl with a much calmer expression. At the very least, he owed her a trip back to the village for that. Luno gently picked the girl up and set her on his left shoulder as he then set off towards the small village. When he got there, he set the girl down and gave her a gentle push towards the people. Most people seemed to be slightly intimidated by his presence, but several others thanked him for returning a child to the village. Now they just had to find the girl's parents. It was easy for children to get lost in a forest that was so close.

Luno noted that it seemed like a lull in his part of the story and that it would probably shift to someone else soon. As he walked away from the village once more and eased against a tree as he laid down to rest, he couldn't help but be amused by the author's inability to decide which character he was going to focus on. It didn't concern him much. Everyone else seemed to have mostly forgotten about him, so there wasn't much to be doing in the interim. Luno closed his eyes and finally...

...finally got to rest.

* * *

Oliver heaved a sigh as he set foot in the Graveyard's dirt once more. It had been a while since they'd been here, but Oliver had been here many more times than anyone could've known. Drawing his silver blade, its glow more evident in the dim lighting of the graveyard, Oliver raised his guard. Anything could happen here. He would be ready if and when it did. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a sound next to him. Looking over, Maxi seemed to be slurping the last drops out of his drink through a straw. Oliver heaved another sigh.

"Dude, loosen up a bit." Maxi told him, "It's not like this is the first time either of us is doing this."

"Yes, but that doesn't make it better," Oliver noted, "Also, this is the first time we're doing it together."

"Mmm..." Maxi made a face, "Not true. Obviously you forget chapter nine and ten of Puppet Master."

"That still hasn't come out yet. As of right now, your origin story is still incomplete." Oliver corrected him, "We're sitting on something like eighteen thousand words. Maybe we should just publish what we have, then get on with the next chapter as it comes."

"Or we could break up what we have into individual chapters and have a brief period of daily uploading." Maxi proposed, "That could work."

"See, now I would expect that to work, but I'm not sure the author will listen, nor will he actually act on it." Oliver replied, "I'll make sure he does."

For the record, I am listening, and yes, I'll publish it tomorrow if I've got a moment to spare.

"Did everyone read that? Did everyone hear that?" Maxi asked, "That sounded pretty definitive to me. If it doesn't come out by next week, I will eat my own eyeballs."

Oliver winced, "Don't... don't do that. I don't wanna watch that, I don't wanna see the result of that, I don't wanna have to clean that up... I don't even wanna think about that."

"You know what I just thought of?" Maxi said suddenly, "About that conversation we were having earlier, you said that humans don't typically have amazing physical prowess. What about that guy Saitama? What was his show called? Was it One Punch Mph-!"

Oliver smacked a hand over Maxi's mouth. "Copyright." he said simply.

"So what?" Maxi said, removing Oliver's hand, "We're not for profit. We don't even have advertisements."

"Where would we put advertisements?" Oliver asked, "Just abruptly in the middle of a chapter: Drink this brand of water that is no different from any other you've ever seen! Wait, never mind! You can't afford it!"

"Well we could." Maxi said, "That and selling stuff like oil are two of the faster ways of making money."

"You just said we're not for profit." Oliver replied, "So don't concern yourself with cash. I've got money from several years of adventuring, you've got money from your business, and Jayden has money from lots of guild quests and material sales." Oliver paused for a moment, "What were we talking about? I feel like we just went off on a three day tangent."

"Oh that's just a side effect of when 24 takes too long to get back to writing the story. He probably paused in the middle of writing your sentence, then took a break for over a day, then finished the sentence just now." Maxi informed him, "I was telling you to relax, even though we're standing in The Gamindustri Graveyard and we're going to take on the CFWs."

Oliver nodded slowly, "Then let's get this done. If all goes well, we might even be able to end this here and now." He considered the possibility, "Let's end this." Oliver led the way ahead of the CPUs, a select team of makers behind them, followed by Maxi bringing up the rear. Maxi's spear blazed with bright flames in the dim light of the Graveyard. Oliver's blade glowed silver, and his armor shone in the darkness with small arcs of electricity sparking between his armor plates. The CFWs were waiting. Oliver stopped opposite them across a clearing. He raised one hand. "Does everyone remember the plan? Maxi, Neptune, and I are immune to the status effects inflicted by Trick's tongue, so we'll be after him. MarvelousAQL, Compa, and IF will join Nepgear and Rom in going after Judge. Tekken, Gust, and Cave will join Uni and Ram up against Brave. Noire, Vert, and Blanc are gonna take on Magic. Are there any questions?" Maxi raised his hand, "Good question," Oliver replied, "but there's no time for answers, the CFWs are right there. Let's do this."

Oliver raised his sword and sprang towards the sky, Maxi following close behind. Neptune rushed forward behind the two, drawing her own blade. Everyone managed to stick to the plan, and without further ado, the battle began. Before Trick could really get started, Maxi bashed his front with the back end of his spear. The impact caused the flames around the spear to create a shatter-like effect as the flames scattered and burned Trick as they spread out in a radial pattern. Oliver landed behind Trick and began an all out, machine-gun speed combo from behind while Neptune took Maxi's place in front and did the same. Maxi stepped back and began charging his next attack. Metal surrounded his hand, and flames built up around the forming metal. He waited, timing his attack for the right moment. He watched Trick's health deplete until it reached about half.

"My turn." Maxi said quietly, with a smile on his face that suggested he might have been a bit less than perfectly sane. "Here we go..."

 **"Single Singe!"**

Maxi threw the punch faster than Trick had time to react, and with just enough time for Neptune and Oliver to move out of its blast radius. With the punch thrown, the metal plating shattered, and the flames dispersed, Trick laid on the floor, thoroughly defeated. Maxi smiled as Trick burst into pixels. He breathed deeply before exhaling with a satisfied grin. "Oooh... that'll leave a mark."

"Or not; he's fucking dead." Neptune corrected him, flicking him on the back of the head. "Now come on, let's help the others." Maxi nodded and leapt into the air, deploying a puppet with propellor blades so he could survey from above.

"Let's try this out." Maxi held out his hand and tried a trick that Mina had taught him, "I wonder if I'll get bonus damage from an aerial attack?" A red and orange rune appeared in front of his hand, and Maxi rained fireballs down on Judge. The extra damage was just enough to open up the way for Nepgear to finish him off. Maxi dropped to the ground and hi-fived Nepgear. "Solid accidental teamwork!"

Oliver dropped in from behind and drove his blade through Magic's back. She screamed out in pain and threw him off, only for him to loop around and move on to another target. He lashed out at one of the random monsters around the graveyard next. The boss fight and intensity hadn't kept them away. He rushed around in circles around the main group with arcs of lightning flashing from his blade, cleaving monsters in two. Magic tried to refocus her efforts, only to catch his blade in the back again. She lashed out at him, but he was nowhere close when the attack finally got around. Oliver smiled and chuckled a bit to himself before observing the situation with Brave. They seemed to have reached a stalemate, and Brave had stopped fighting. It seemed like a truce almost, but Oliver kept one eye open for it. Eventually, Brave burst into pixels due to something he couldn't see. Oliver came to a stop in front of Magic.

"You're the only one left, Magic." he told her as his comrades grouped up behind him, "So how's this gonna go?" Magic said nothing, and caught him off guard by not giving a speech. Instead, she raised one arm and shot bolts all over the graveyard. Where they struck, monsters rose again, including the CFWs. Oliver could read that they were stronger than before, and obviously Magic had stepped up her game too. He leveled his silver blade at her. "A fight to the death, eh? I'm game."

As Oliver battled Magic, Maxi was having an interesting time with Trick again. Maxi had unleashed his army of puppets, but even that seemed to be ineffective. He frowned as Trick threw his puppets left and right while taking minimal damage. Maxi jumped into the fray himself, adding a bit to the damage. It wasn't much, but he hoped it would be enough.

Neptune was struggling against Judge's blade. She could see Maxi working on Trick, and Oliver working on magic. Someone had occupied Brave, so now she was on her own up against him. It shouldn't have been a challenge, but something was keeping her from transforming. She could do this though. She'd fought tougher opponents without her CPU and CGU forms. She was ready. This was her fight. She would win.

The CPUs, candidates, and makers of the current timeline were all battling Brave at once, and it was going about as well as anything else was. The random monsters didn't help, especially not with their boost from Magic. At any rate, it seemed like they were going to lose here, and then Brave would move on to assist his fellow CFWs in defeating their allies. They were all thinking it. Could this have gone any worse? Suddenly... something descended from the sky. It was colourful, and came in a pillar of light. Everyone's eyes bulged as they saw who it was...

 _ **Jayden appeared!**_

CFW Judge approaches and Two Dolichorhynchops follow!

Jayden goes first!

Jayden attacks: **Gehaburn unleashes a storm of slashing blades!**

Dolichorhynchops A takes 9567 damage!

Dolichorhynchops B takes 9576 damage!

 _CFW Judge's Metal wings are slashed off!_

The enemy team retaliates!

CFW Judge **retreats** for now...

Dolichorhynchops A attacks!

Jayden evades the attack!

 **Dolichorhynchops B unleashes a storm of hail!**

Jayden takes no damage!

Jayden goes again!

Jayden attacks: **Gehaburn delivers a long horizontal slash!**

Dolichorhynchops A is defeated!

Dolichorhynchops B is defeated!

Jayden receives [Dolphin Check Tail]x2

Credits gained: 102,000

CFW Trick rolls up! Three Pixelvaders follow!

Jayden outspeeds the enemy!

Jayden lets his magic loose! **Spectral Cannon**

Pixelvader A is defeated!

Pixelvader B is defeated!

Pixelvader C is defeated!

CFW Trick takes 9999 damage eleven times!

CFW Trick Retaliates!

CFW Trick uses his tongue like a whip!

Jayden evades the attack!

Jayden attacks again!

Jayden's eyes flash a menacing red!

CFW Trick acknowledges the situation and temporarily retreats...

There's no time for loot! Linda and Pirachu hesitantly shuffle forward! A Dagon follows!

The Dagon outspeeds Jayden!

Dagon lashes out with razor sharp claws!

Jayden takes 7 damage!

Dagon uses its tentacles!

Jayden is unaffected by the attack...

Jayden regenerates HP!

Linda swings her pipe!

The attack misses...

Pirachu goes to attack! Then thinks better of it and leaves...

Linda shortly follows...

Jayden Retaliates!

Jayden unleashes a powerful cut! Chromatic Slash

Dagon takes 9999 damage six times!

Dagon's element changes from water to fire!

Jayden follows up! Raging Torrent

It's Super Effective!

Dagon is defeated!

Jayden finally relaxes...

"Well that was an ordeal..." Maxi muttered, "How come we aren't cool enough to get RPG narrations to our battles?" Oliver glared at him. "Right, right, priorities, whatever."

"Glad I showed up in time," Jayden said with a smug grin, "Come on, guys. Plot convenience or not, you guys are better than that."

"You'd be surprised." Oliver noted, "A lot can happen when you're not the main character."

"I feel like this doesn't even count as breaking the fourth wall anymore." Neptune added, "I feel like we lost that classification somewhere in chapter 24. Also..." Neptune raised her left pointer finger slowly, "I feel like 24 just took another really long break from writing the series. That felt like two weeks."

"He started school." Maxi noted, "He lives down south. They start school earlier."

"He lives down south?!" Neptune objected, "Why doesn't he have a southern accent?!"

"Keep in mind he comes from New York." Oliver informed her, "He's only lived down south for something like four years. For humans, a year is a much more substantial amount of time, but that's still not much."

"Now then," Jayden said, leveling Gehaburn at CFW Magic, "I suggest we leave. Methinks we're not so prepared as you thought we were. We might pull this off by the skin of our teeth, but a tactical retreat might be best for now."

"Over my dead body." Magic hissed. Walls of anti-share crystals raised around the two opposing parties, and Jayden bit his lip.

"It seems we're backed into a corner." the colour-eyed man noted, "Any ideas, Maxi? Oliver? I'm open to suggestions. Neptune, you got anything?"

Oliver twitched slightly. Maxi picked up on it, but Oliver implored that he hold his questions. "We can deal with anti-share crystals, but it might take longer than we have to break them and free our allies than we have."

"Shoot..." Maxi swore under his breath, "If I had brought along my exo-suit this wouldn't have been a problem. Jayden, do you still have your exo-suit from chapter seven?"

"If I did, I would've started with that." Jayden replied, "Different timeline means different rules and sometimes different equipment."

"Shit." Neptune hissed, feeling the effect of the anti-share crystals on her. "I hate to say this, but I can't really help you guys in this situation."

"It's understandable." Oliver said, "These crystals are quite powerful. I can feel their effect even though I don't rely on shares. I can only imagine what it's like for you."

"Don't." Neptune rebuttled, "Not worth the pain."

CFW Judge approached, his wings reattached and halberd drawn. Oliver braced himself to fight back and try to by Maxi some time to think of something. Jayden stood next to him.

"I've got this." Jayden told Oliver, "Save your strength."

Oliver twitched again. Taking his place in a fight? Not something he'd seen Jayden do before. He could understand if he was maturing, but he couldn't process what had sparked the change. Jayden deflected Judge's first swing, but it took a visible tax on him. It was at that moment that Oliver remembered that Jayden was partially (by an excruciatingly small margin) reliant on shares due to events of previous chapters and possessing an almost CPU-like transformation, and that these crystals were bringing him down too. Maxi had begun to whittle away at the crystals behind them to see if he could create a viable escape. Judge swung three times in succession, and Jayden blocked the first, tanked the second, and deflected the third. Oliver could see that the single strike had done much more damage than Jayden had anticipated. Jayden managed to take one more overhead swing from Judge before he jumped back.

"Can I ask you to cover me for a moment while I recover?" Jayden asked. Oliver nodded silently and sprang forward, slashing Judge across the chest. Judge stumbled backwards, but only slightly. In the same way that the CPUs were energized by share crystals, the anti-shares seemed to be doing wonders for Judge. To his benefit, Oliver was a hardened warrior on the inside. It would take more than a murderous gundam to take him down; he dealt with Maxi every day, and that was much the same thing (Minus the metal body). Jayden pulled out a small vial which was full of a colourful liquid that almost matched his eyes in terms of vibrancy. Jayden knocked that bottle back, and Oliver watched his health and stamina returned. "I can switch back in if you need me to!" Jayden called. Oliver ignored the offer and continued at a steady pace. It was easy to see that he had this under control quite well. It wasn't until Brave attacked that he had a problem.

Brave attacked from the side, being controlled only by darkness, and possessing the same murderous rage that Judge had. Oliver turned and deflected the attack, then turned back and knocked away Judge's halberd once more. Even with his skill, under the influence of the weakening crystals, and for having been fighting for so long already, Oliver had to admit that he was nearing his limit. Jayden braced himself to switch in, or take on one of them by himself, but he was quickly rendered unable to do so by Trick, who he'd forgotten about. Jayden had his hands tied behind his back by Trick's tongue, and it looked like Maxi was too occupied to fix any of this. The CPUs were unable to help because of the crystals, and the Makers simply couldn't conjure enough strength or energy to make a solid attack on anything. Jayden bared his teeth. He had known that this timeline was doomed, but he'd hoped to fix a few things for the next run before he'd ditched this one. Now he was going out without leaving any noticeable difference. He couldn't even move on to another timeline, or reset. He literally had his hands tied. He closed his eyes and swore. He'd failed.

But you know, not really.

It was a few moments later when Jayden heard the crash. He looked up to see a silver, gold, and blue mech come crashing through the anti-share crystal walls. This new mech carried a fittingly large blade, adorned with a ruby, silver edges, and dark blue/purple center, and golden accents. The new mech's blade caught Judge's halberd, knocking the murderous bot back. This was followed by Judge's face catching the new mech's fist, blasting Judge backwards across the graveyard. Judge smashed into the anti-share crystal wall on the other side of magic, then crashed through it with a loud clatter. The silver mech pumped his fist and settled his gaze on Brave. Something within Brave awakened within that moment.

"A worthy opponent!" the chivalrous gundam cried out in joy, shattering his chains of darkness in favour of his normal exuberancy at a worthwhile cause, "Let us see who is the better swordsmech!"

"I don't believe I could have phrased it better." The silver mech replied. "Though you may find that my master has trained me better than you can handle."

"I see." Brave replied, "My own style is self-taught, and I believed it to be superior, but... the way you stand... the way you hold your ground... it's all exceptional... The way you hold your blade one-handed and behind you in that stance is the only peculiarity to note, yet you seem so composed that I cannot find fault."

"Why thank you." The silver mech responded, "I take pride in my own confidence, and to be perfectly honest, I find that you're quite perfect in your stances and guards as well. Let us test each other's perfection."

"Pray tell..." Brave almost begged, "I want to know your name before we dual."

"Certainly," the mech said. "I am know as Jugemu-jugemu Gokōnosurikire Kaijarisuigyo-no Suigyōmatsu Unraimatsu Fūraimatsu Kūnerutokoroni-sumutokoro Yaburakōjino-burakōji Paipopaipo-paiponoshūringan Shūringanno-gūrindai Gūrindaino-ponpokopīno-ponpokonāno Chōkyūmeino-chōsuke!"

Brave stood, silent and dumbfounded in response. When he finally found the manner to speak, it was not what he expected to follow. "I beg your pardon?"

"I'm joking." The silver mech explained, "My name is Affimojas. I gather that you are CFW Brave. There is no further need for words. Let our blades sing for us."

Brave got so excited that his broadsword burst into flames as he leveled the blade at Affimojas. Affimojas gave his blade a spin, then slashed twice in front of him before holding his blade at the ready. This was mostly just to be flashy. Affimojas held out his empty hand palm up before bending his fingers twice in a 'come at me' gesture. Brave rushed forward, but it seemed that Affimojas was much more agile than one would expect from a giant metal mech. He performed a backflip out of the way of Brave's attack, which was a combination of hilarious and awesome at the same time (if you can imagine a mech doing a backflip with an oversized sword in its hand, well... yeah). Affimojas then brought his sword up over his head and followed up with a jump strike towards Brave. Brave barely managed to block it, then was caught directly by Affimojas' follow-up attack which came in the form of a downward slash, a side flip, and another downward attack at the conclusion of the turn.

Brave was a bit confounded by the style Affimojas had brought to the fight. He had expected a more... (standard? normal?) orthodox style of fighting. The style Affimojas was using was... Brave wasn't sure. It was familiar, but also incomprehensible to the highest degree.

Affimojas performed a wide slash suddenly, leaving his midsection wide open. Brave took the opportunity and stabbed forwards, expecting a solid strike at Affimojas' stomach. Instead, Brave was given nothing. Looking closer, Affimojas had tipped his body just slightly to the side, and the blade had slid off the angle of Affimojas' armor plating. Brave mentally paused. This situation was getting worse by the second. Everytime he assumed something, he just made an ass of himself and was proven wrong. Clearly he had to think a bit more. His own blade was extended, but Affimojas' blade was all the way over there because of the swipe he'd just taken, so... he was fine... right? As soon as the thought was finished, he took a blow to the chin and flipped over backwards, he hit the ground with much less grace than he would've liked to admit. Affimojas held his blade at Brave, fallen on the floor. Brave heaved a sigh.

"How careless of me." Brave noted, "I should know better than to make assumptions when facing opponents as strong as yourself."

"It's no big deal." Affimojas said, and sheathed his blade, offering a hand to Brave. "There is more to a dual than thought and action. A dual between those like us includes a battle of souls, and yours is tainted by evil. You would do well to banish the evil from your heart and seek a truer path."

Brave reflected on this statement, picked up his blade, sheathed the broadsword, and shook Affimojas hand. "then consider me your disciple from now on. Or wait... you noted that you answer to a master before? I will answer to the same master. Let us be brothers in arms!"

"That's the spirit, Brother!" Affimojas responded with equal verve. "Let us act in our debut as a pair. Our master and other comrade will be along shortly. They are making preparations."

Affimojas and Brave pulled their blades in unison. Trick and Judge approached and Brave almost grinned.

Maxi sent a text: [ _What's the verdict? Do they get RPG narration of their battle?_ ]

You know what? Why not?

DFU Affimojas and CFW Brave stand their ground!

CFW Trick and CFW Judge approach!

DFU Affimojas' team goes first!

DFU Affimojas takes the **{Dread Knight}** stance!

 **Dread Knight Affimojas unleashes an unorthodox burst of attacks!**

CFW Trick takes 500 damage!

CFW Judge takes 498 damage!

CFW Brave has learned the **{Dread Knight}** stance!

 **CFW Brave takes a wide slash with his blade ablaze!**

CFW Trick takes 800 damage!

CFW Trick is burned!

CFW Judge takes 789 damage!

CFW Judge loses a turn to to heat fatigue!

The opposing side retailiates!

CFW Judge is recovering...

CFW Trick curls into a ball and rolls towards the enemy!

CFW Brave takes 254 damage!

Dread Knight Affimojas avoids the attack!

CFW Trick takes 100 burn damage!

Dread Knight Affimojas' team follows up!

Dread Knight Affimojas takes the {Titan Vanguard} stance!

Titan Vanguard Affimojas uses 128-bit Sonic Blade!

CFW Trick takes 1202 damage!

CFW Trick is stunned!

CFW Judge takes 1998 damage!

CFW Brave has learned the {Titan Vanguard} stance!

CFW Brave takes the {Titan Vanguard} stance!

Titan Vanguard Brave jumps up and slashes downwards with two hands!

CFW Judge takes 907 damage!

The opposing team attacks again!

CFW Trick is stunned...

CFW Judge attacks!

Titan Vanguard Affimojas takes no damage!

CFW Judge Follows up! Halberd Hurricane

Titan Vanguard Affimojas takes 403 damage!

Titan Vanguard Brave takes 532 damage!

Brave's team strikes again!

Titan Vanguard Affimojas takes the {Forsaken Seraph} stance!

Forsaken Seraph Affimojas uses Field Repairs!

Forsaken Seraph Affimojas regains full health!

Titan Vanguard Brave regains full health!

Titan Vanguard Brave has learned the {Forsaken Seraph} stance!

Titan Vanguard Brave reaches his {Limit Breaker}! "Enough! For the sake of this world's children, I will defeat you!"

Burning Blossom

CFW Trick is defeated!

CFW Judge is defeated!

Brave and Affimojas win this fight!

Affimojas crossed his arms with a contented grin. "This is the start of something beautiful Brave." he said, a clear amount of satisfaction in his voice, despite being a robot, "This is how we will save this world."

"Agreed." Brave replied, "I must admit, not only does it feel good to be on the winning team, but it also feels good to fight alongside those who you have good synergy with. This is a purpose I can truly fight for."

"Yes..." someone else said, "And there is much to learn. But I see you can pick up quickly. We will see how much potential there is to be had in you, Brave."

Affimojas turned and genuflected, "Master." He got back to both feet, and Brave mimicked this action. The Boss had shown up at one point or another with Steamax accompanying him.

"It seems you've taken care of most of the work before I even arrived." The Boss noted, "Steamax, do what you can to heal the CPUs and their party members. Affimojas, Brave, get started on breaking down those anti-share crystals. Steamax won't be able to make much progress in terms of healing with those still standing." Brave and Affimojas took their blades in hand and began to hack away at the crystals while Steamax tended to the CPUs and their party with some bandages and medical salve. "Meanwhile..." The Boss sauntered towards Magic. "It's been too long."

Magic hissed in response. "Not long enough. If you'd never came I would've been perfectly happy."

"Oh come on," The Boss quickly shot back, "We're on better terms than that, I'm sure. Whether you're going to act happy to see me or not, it doesn't change what's about to happen. What does change that is what your response to the next question is. What will you do now, Magic? You could heal up Judge and Trick again, I'm sure that handling them again would hold us for a solid few minutes. You could bring up another anti-share crystal wall, but I'm quite sure that you don't have enough mana left to do so. You could try and fight me here and now, I'm sure we're long overdue for a rematch. Or..." he held up his pointer finger on his left hand, "You could back down and join me like Brave has. It would expedite this process quite a bit."

Magic said nothing for a long while. "It's a tempting offer." she said finally. The CPUs and party held their breath. Had The Boss really just swooped in and solved their problems by uniting their remaining adversaries into one team of allies? "And one I will consider. But for now... I cannot accept just yet."

"I'll take a rain check then." The Boss said, super casually, "But now I have to deal with the Deity fragments that were just released from Brave, Trick, and Judge, don't I?"

"Oh." In a moment that no one ever expected to see, Magic actually lost her composure a bit, "I did not think about that. I will neither help you, nor hinder you. I will... continue thinking."

"Right then." The Boss said, "Let's fight the Deity of Sin fragments why don't we?" Steamax was still tending to the CPUs and their party members, and Affimojas and Brave were hacking down the last remains of the Anti-share crystals. A mass of pure evil erupted from the ground before them, a body of the Deity of Sin. "That's just a fragment? How lovely. This should prove to be interesting." The Boss pulled two buds out of the collar of his black, high-collared jacket. Placing the earbuds in his slightly pointed ears, he pressed a button by a spot on his neck. "And for those curious readers who want to know what it is I'm listening to, it's a little song called 'Roundabout' by the band named 'Yes.'"

The Boss sighed. "Let's just get to the point." From his back, he pulled a sword out of a hidden scabbard. It was the same Crimson, cyan-edged blade that he'd used one chapter prior to down Maxi, Neptune, and Oliver all in succession. The Deity let out a deafening roar in her giant, graveyard formed body. "By the true goddess, what a brute." The Boss commented. He slowly walked forward. Each step slow, and lazy, yet purposeful and with the utmost precision. He stopped about fifty yards from the Deity herself and planted his feet on the ground, not taking a combative stance, but letting it be known that he did not intend to fail.

Suddenly, Maxi noted something in his pocket. What was it? It looked like a small mechanical device that could be used for anything. The Boss pulled it out. It was a teleporter core. Why would he need one of those. A smirk appeared on his face as he turned, his jacket catching the wind and flaring outwards. His arm whipped around and let the teleporter core fly towards the CPUs. Maxi felt the familiar feeling of being teleported, and was in the graveyard for just long enough to see The Boss run.

{=TO BE CONTINUED!=}


	35. Cake Party and Understanding

**A/N: The lack of comments tells me that there's no need for an intro here. If you have something to say on the series, or the chapter...**

 **LEAVE A COMMENT!**

* * *

Well this was a bit of an interesting predicament. Having gotten rid of most of what could have been his backup, The Boss, Affimojas, Steamax, and Brave were hurrying themselves across the Gamindustri Graveyard, dodging spirit bolts, flying rocks, giant blasts of slicing winds, and other kinds of magic by any other definition.

"Master," Steamax noted suddenly, "I think it may be an opportune moment to use the new function you implemented for me." The Boss had to think about that for a moment, but gave an approving nod not a second later. Steamax folded up into a floating plate of metal which the Boss promptly hopped up onto. As soon as his boots made contact with the flying plate, Steamax folded up again, forming into blue technical sabatons. With those now equipped, The Boss could run much faster than the normal limitations of a human. Blink-teleportation only moved a person so far; sprinting was better for distances.

"Master," Affimojas interjected after another thirty seconds or so, "I have a similar function, do I not?" The Boss didn't have time to stop and really contemplate whether or not he'd finished that function, so rather he decided to have Affimojas just go ahead and do it. Affimojas folded up and deployed himself onto his Master's back, forming into armor which covered the rest of The Boss's body. Skidding to a stop, The Boss turned and Brave slid up alongside him.

"Master, what about me?" Brave inquired, "I don't have such a function yet."

"Very true." The Boss noted, and handed him a teleport core, "Use this and teleport back to the base for now. I'll come and get you once this is done. If we're not back within an hour or so, then we're dead. Godspeed, Brave."

"Very well, Master." Brave said, "May the True Goddess' blessings be with you." Brave saluted The Boss before teleporting out of the graveyard.

"Now then..." The Boss said quietly, "here we go." The Boss took off back towards the Deity of Sin at blistering speeds, making use of the rockets in his boots. Drawing his sword, he took a wide slash as he passed the Deity's body. The Deity roared out it pain as one of its massive legs crashed to the ground. The Boss smirked. At the speed his was moving, this was actually proving to be quite easy. He rushed passed three of four more times, removing the other legs, then slammed his blade down in the middle, bursting the Deity's body to pixels. "First form is the easiest. Second form absorbs into the graveyard itself and poses a much bigger challenge, but that comes later. Better recover and come back prepared."

Little did he know that he was being watched from afar. "He knows too much..." his watcher hissed, "Something needs to be done about this.

* * *

It was a few hours later that The Boss and his company of three arrived at the Planeptune Basilicom.

"I see you received my message." Histoire told the shadowed boy, "You have my eternal thanks for responding to my request, especially on such short notice. If you hadn't then-"

"Not necessary." The Boss put simply, "It was a logical solution. Whatever my other motives may be, they're invalid without a world to execute them in. Not to mention that I'm not exactly popular among ASIC. I haven't been exactly clean in destroying their factories."

"Yeah," Uni hissed, "How do you justify attacking us before?"

"Oh, chapter 32? Yes, I have an explanation for that somewhere..." The Boss sifted through his pockets, "Aight, here. I needed a plot convenient way of getting you to stop for just a few minutes. I don't think you knew this, but the guild quest you were planning on included a rather dangerous monster that only appears on certain days. At Steamax's hands I could guarantee your survival at least."

Uni grumbled a bit, but didn't say anything else. "Well," Histoire said, "The only other room we have available is Jayden's room. I hope he kept it clean enough to stay in..." Histoire trailed off and winked at him.

"I'm sure I can work something out." The Boss replied.

"Oh, and I see these are your companions." Histoire said, gesturing to his robotic allies, "I see the blue one is Steamax, and the golden one is Affimojas." The Boss nodded in confirmation, "So who is the red one?"

"Ah this?" The Boss inquired, holding a hand out to the humanoid red drone beside him, "Well, I'll let him introduce himself, though I believe you may have met once before."

The red bot took a knee, "Greetings Lady Histoire." he said, his voice sounding rather familiar, "This is the more humanoid form granted to me by my new master. I was formerly known as CFW Brave. My master has granted me the new title of Bravo."

"Bravo indeed." The Boss added, "I must say, Brave's components were a bit difficult to work with, but it was well worth it. His abilities already come close to matching his two brothers, and his potential may even surpass them. We'll have to see." The Boss caught Uni staring from the other end of the room. "Yes, Uni. This is the new Brave. Maybe you ought to say hello to her, Bravo?" Bravo walked over in Uni's direction. Uni didn't seem to have the same level of patience, and rushed over towards Bravo as soon as he'd gotten roughly halfway there. They collided in the middle of the room. "Get a room, lovebirds." Uni turned red, but didn't object. Both Uni and Bravo looked over to The Boss, the same hopeful glint in their eyes. The Boss both sighed and chuckled at the same time. "Very well. Report to me later, Bravo. I won't give you a specific time, just check in later or whatever." Uni and Bravo rushed towards the door and quickly left.

"You're awfully trustworthy of him," Histoire noted, "He just became your follower earlier this week, did he not?"

"Just earlier today actually." The Boss confirmed, "Bravo was never one with the dark to begin with. He simply needed a beacon to guide him back to the light. Never was he particularly bad, he just didn't know who were really the good guys."

"I see." Histoire said quietly, "Well. I'll leave you to get settled in, Ja- er... sorry. You remind me quite a bit of my son. Your eyes... they're quite similar really. And your hair... it's almost the same."

The Boss readjusted his hat, concealing both his hair and eyes, "My apologies. Also, my thanks for pointing that out. My eyes and general features were not supposed to be visible."

"For what reason?" Histoire asked.

"It's simple." The Boss stated as Steamax and Affimojas continued out of the room, "Basic super hero rules. Conceal your true identity. If you don't, then your enemy will go after your loved ones. Better yet, don't let them ever truly see you. If they can't pin you down, you'll never need to worry about your own weaknesses. A ghost has no weakness, only influence."

"You're clever to deduce such things." Histoire noted, "It's almost like you have prior experience."

"You'd be surprised." The Boss mumbled, "I have a plan for advancing. It may be a different one than would seem ideal, but it's the most effective. I'll need an elite squad of twelve people. Maybe thirteen."

"I'll keep that in mind." Histoire replied, "I'll let you get to work."

The Boss nodded and strode off to Jayden's room. Jayden watched from afar. He didn't need that room, he had other places to stay, but it sort of stung that Histoire had tossed him aside in favor this... murderer. Jayden smiled slightly. He'd have his vengeance. It would take a few hours, but he'd work it out. He always did. For the sake of a second chance, a new world... a second chance for Neptune... In time. In time.

* * *

Luno jolted awake. What was this presence? Oh, the point of view was on him again. 'Indecisive author strikes again...' Luno thought with a silent sigh. He stood, his spindly legs maintaining some sort of impossible balance despite how thin they were. Luno had a look around. If the viewpoint had come back around to him, then something was bound to happen in a few moments. As if on cue, an arrow whizzed by. Animals and people alike fled the scene. Luno looked over, spotting a few armored skeletons armed with spears and bows. He would've frowned if he had a mouth. Some of these animals and people looked familiar though... The village? Wait... Luno's mind centered on one thing.

The Girl.

In a blaze of rage and energy, Luno's armor plating snapped back into existence, transforming him into the metal titan once again. Taking a step to act, a skeleton stepped in front of him, equipped with a large battle axe. Luno's fingers sharpened into claws. He released an electronic-sounding roar before charging the skeleton down.

The girl ducked and hid behind a tree for a moment. An arrow slammed into the trunk next to her. She dipped around another arrow, then was stopped by a third crashing into the tree in front of her. The girl's clumsy nature caused her to topple over onto her backside. As a fourth arrow came flying in to finish the girl off, Luno stepped into the way and caught the arrow with the armor plating that was left on his legs. He positioned himself defensively in front of the girl, and said girl cowered behind him. Luno's armor was already half broken again, and he had a battle axe stuck in the side of his head. Luno pulled out the battle axe and flung it at one of the skeletons, reducing it to a pile of bones. Now the rest of them came up. They numbered sixteen in total, two with bows, and the others with spears and swords. Luno focused deeply on his will.

 **Electron**

Pulses of lightning arced from Luno's fingertips, blowing apart three skeletons in one sweep, and another two in the second.

 **Pulses**

Energy rocked the ground, knocking the skeletons off balance and giving Luno time to operate.

 **Legacy**

In order to win, Luno needed every ounce of power he could summon. He planted his feet solidly, brought his hands together, and summoned the last depths of his will to aid him. He would have his victory. Luno closed his eyes and transformed.

* * *

The Boss walked through the forest, looking for the particular item he needed. It was a kind of mushroom with a curly red tip. After about thirty minutes, he finally found something of the sort. He walked over to the little red thing poking out of the grass and gave it a pull, only for it to be pulled back down. The Boss stumbled backwards and fell onto his backside. Something emerged from the grass. Was it a girl? Yeah, it was a girl. Who was it?

"Geez!" The girl exclaimed "I'm tryin' to take a-!" The girl paused when she saw who he was. "You..." The girl unsheathed a rapier. "Come no closer. Or else." The girl stated. The Boss raised his hands in surrender, "Good, then I'll make this painless." The girl raised her blade and took a swipe at him. The Boss doubled over backwards, dodging the blade of the rapier by a mere inch.

"Well good afternoon." The Boss said without drawing a weapon, "Nice to meet you." The girl didn't reply and took a swipe at him again. "Lovely weather we're having here. Maybe you'd drop the weapon and enjoy it with me?"

"Huh?" a puzzled expression crossed the girl's face. The girl loosed a spell, creating two swirling blades, both of which were avoided with ease.

"So How's your day going?" The Boss inquired, "Methinks it might start going better with a more peaceful approach to it." The girl's expression grew more puzzled, "How about a joke to lighten the mood? What has four wheels and is the colour purple? I have no idea. I'm improvising." The girl's face grew furthermore puzzled.

"Do you... understand what's going on here?" The girl asked.

"I have an idea." The Boss said, then dodged around her blade again, "Already heard that joke, maybe? How about another one?"

"Are you even listening to me?!" The girl shrieked, "What are you doing?!"

"I'm being me." The Boss replied simply, "And I'll continue to do so. I really don't want to fight."

The girl paused. The Boss could see that she was thinking. There was a painful silence between the two. Suddenly, the girl's expression changed to rage, "What's with you?!" the girl cried out, "In the middle of battle you're just straight-up trying to make friendly chatter with me?! Who?! What kind of idiot..." The girl paused for a long time. Finally, she said, "You know what? No. If you don't WANT to fight... I'll have to MAKE YOU." The girl lashed out a second rapier and drew back her arms. The Boss quickly flipped backwards out of the way of the slash which tore the very ground apart beneath it.

"OOOOOOOH WHAT THE?!" Temporarily, The Boss lost his composure. Regaining it quickly, he threw his hands up, "Hey, hey! I said I didn't wanna fight here!"

The girl with the red hood ignored him, "You think I haven't heard of you already?!" she exclaimed. She slashed across at him again, tearing the land apart once more. The Boss quickly realized that, until her next attack, when that would be fixed, she'd effectively halved the space he had to dodge this attack. Two large spinning magic axes flew in from the left and right and began to spin in a set path. Fortunately, the Boss Managed to avoid getting his head taken off. "'New Ally!' 'Savior of lives!' 'Master of stealth and combat operations!'" The Boss recognized that she was quoting Famitsu's reports. The girl made a rapid flurry of slashes which the Boss only narrowly avoided, getting the edges of his coat clipped in the process. "What nonsense!" The girl shouted at him, "You're a murderer! Have they forgotten that?!"

The Boss thought ahead for a moment. If he could drive her to be particularly mad, then he could probably make her get sloppy which would make the follow-up easier. "Would you like me to describe how satisfying it was to drive a sword through that boy's back and to put a bullet through his skull?" he asked, "you'd think that would be a fun little setup, and an effective one at that, but you'd be surprised."

"You're a monster!" The girl yelled, "You have no place beside the Goddesses, or in this world for that matter! Now die!"

"You don't know how truly right you are..." The Boss muttered. The girl lobbed two grenades at him, then gashed the ground once more. Luckily enough, he was standing in a safe spot.

"You can be as much of a sweetheart and a friend to them now..." The girl continued, "But that doesn't change anything!" The girl wound up both her rapiers and slashed out at thirteen places at once. The Boss took the full brutal force of it the first time, then learned how to telegraph it better the next times. "You're a MURDERER!" the girl screamed.

"Someone needs to calm down..." The Boss murmured.

"Are you so obsessed with trying to make up now, that you'll throw your life away trying?!" She asked, "Because I won't forgive you! Never!" The Boss dodged six or seven more times before the girl slammed her blades into the ground. "WHY WON'T YOU FIGHT BACK?!" The Boss evaded three or four more flying magic axes, another few formations of rapid flurry of slashing, and several more swipes before the girl paused for a moment where she had him in an inescapable situation. Eventually, she dropped to her knees. "Fuck this!" she yelled "I can't do this if you won't even defend yourself..." The Boss remained silent for a moment. Was this a trick? It had to be a trick. She'd been relentlessly coming at him for the better part of half an hour, there was no way she was just giving up. The Boss slowly drew his blade and leveled it at her. "Oh now you wanna fight, huh?" The girl said half-hardheartedly, "You know what? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is a misunderstanding. Just... leave me be."

She didn't sound awfully sincere. The Boss stood his ground.

"You know what?" The girl said suddenly, standing back up, "'If you find him, don't confront him. Wait until he's killed by another, then take his soul, his energy, his powers, and his equipment, and bring them back so we know why he's so powerful.' Huh. 'Do not engage him unless it's absolutely necessary.' Those were my orders, and I really don't like that last part. Even so, I was waiting here because I knew you'd come by, I was still pretty confident that you wouldn't encounter me like this. But, I can't continue like this. I was hoping that waving my weapons and throwing some specials would ward you off, but here you are, standing your ground like it's nothing. Why don't we forget this ever happened, and I'll stay out of your way. You won't ever see me again."

So she had been following him the whole time? He didn't like the sound of that. If he let her go now, then it was likely that she would continue following him. Taking advantage of his situation, he attacked. A bullet from his rifle sliced the left side of her hood. The girl actually smiled.

"Right for the face, huh?" The girl noted, "It's funny. I was actually worried for a second. I was worried that you wouldn't want to fight. I was worried that you were just protecting yourself, or that you were even genuinely trying to be nice to me. You know what? I'm not worried anymore." The girl tossed off her hood, and a beam of light enveloped her. When it passed, the girl's eyes had power symbols in them and seemed to change over time, displaying every colour of the rainbow, and by her back hovered mechanical wings that shimmered with a similar colour scheme. In one hand was a large rapier, and in the other was an over-sized axe. Covering her body was the trademark bodysuit of a CPU. Hers was black with colourful highlights and linings. She hovered above the ground, looking very powerful and domineering. "the truth is, you're not even sorry, are you?" The girl gashed the ground, trapping The Boss in a box, then taking several swipes at him. At the end of her combo, she let loose with an energy attack from two devices near her shoulders. "A vengeful goddess in a dangerous thing, you know. I'll spare you my name, since you'll be dead soon anyway. My name is Jordan, but you may call me Spectrum Heart.

 _ **Jayden was my brother, you murderer**_."

Jordan let loose an attack from her shoulder gunners, her axe, and her rapier. The Boss just barely avoided all the damage. The Boss gave a counter attack. After dodging all the projectiles, he loaded up his twin rifles. He pointed them out towards the side and began firing off rounds. They homed in towards Spectrum Heart, but she effortlessly cut them apart with her rapier. She tipped the last bullet with her axe, sending it spinning through the air. Then, she slashed it in such a way that it flew back towards him. If you blinked, you would've missed him raising his arm. He caught the bullet in the palm of his hand, remaining unscathed. The only damage he'd taken was from the earlier attack before he could read it.

"You looked innocent enough before." She said, "But that childish worried look, the clumsy movements, the shaking legs and hands... they're all gone now."

Spectrum Heart loosed a wave of colourful bullets all over the battlefield, leaving The Boss to try and figure out how to dodge this one. Through clever footplay and use of careful movement, he took minimal damage. He followed up with a similar attack, but with twice as many projectiles. She somehow avoided the attack altogether.

"The viewers must be so confused..." She commented teasingly, "'Who's the good guy?' 'Who do I root for in this scenario?' They'll figure it out. See these Eisei?" she asked, gesturing to her shoulder devices, "They're not normally mine. They used to be my brother's. He had a name, a family, a life. He could've had children and a partner. Now he's gone. You know why, don't you? That poser that you picked up last chapter? Don't make me laugh."

"I find it funny how cocky you are now as opposed to before." The Boss commented, "I also find it funny how you rattle off such comments as murderer at me. You don't have such a clean record yourself."

Spectrum Heart rattled off a burst fire of flying blades. The Boss somehow found enough of a gap between each attack to escape unscathed. He countered in kind with bullets. Spectrum Heart didn't dodge so well.

"How many, huh?" She asked, "How many are dead because of you?!"

"Our reports are showing a massive gap in the contingency of these timelines..." The Boss noted, "Timelines slamming left and right, and stopping and starting over and over... until it all ends... Heh... that's your fault, isn't it?"

Spectrum Heart lunged forward with her Rapier and Axe in hand. Letting loose a flurry of a combo, she tore into The Boss, dropping at least a quarter off his HP. The Boss loaded up a charged blast in his Sunburst Rifle and blew a solid chunk off of her health bar.

"Don't change the subject on me and act like you don't know!" She snapped, "I know you're the kind of atrocity who keeps track. You keep logs and pause every so often to think about it, don't you?"

"You can't possibly understand how this feels." The Boss continued, "Know that one day, without warning, and without anything we can do about it, it's all just going to be reset. Then, everything I've tried to do is all for naught."

Spectrum Heart hissed and released another barrage from her Eisei, and a round of slashes. The Boss slipped right, then left, then ducked under a last bullet before straightening his suit and emptying the clips on his twin rifles at her. Spectrum Heart deflected the bullets with ease.

"What keeps you going then? Knowing that it's all pointless." She asked, "Because all your efforts are worthless. I'm ending you here."

"Look, I gave up trying to reset a long time ago." The Boss told her, "And getting to the end doesn't really appeal anymore either. Even if I somehow manage to get to the end..." he glared at her, the hatred in his eyes making her flinch, "I'll just end up right back at the damned beginning, probably with minimal memory of it... won't I? I'll be honest with you, it makes it kind of hard to give it my all."

"You haven't been giving it your all up to this point?!" she almost screeched.

"Hardly." he replied, "Look, maybe that's just a poor excuse for being lazy. The hell if I know. What I do know, is that I've seen the end multiple times now. And seeing what comes next... I can't afford not to care anymore. So for you... I'll make an exception. That being said... Maybe we can reach an understanding? I understand, you really like swinging that axe around, reminds me of white heart in a way. Listen... You didn't answer me before, but I don't care about the answer anymore. Maybe... somewhere in there, there's a person who doesn't want to fight anymore. Who's seen enough fighting. Lay down your weapons? Maybe we can talk this out?" The Boss put away his rifle and laid his sword on the ground. "Come on. Do you remember me? If you do... and you're actually listening to me... let's forget all this. Lay down your weapon and... this will be much easier.

The Boss offered Spectrum Heart Mercy. Spectrum heart faltered for a moment, then gained her angry glare back on her face. She took a rending swing at him, tearing the ground apart in the process. The Boss was already standing off on the side. She looked at him.

"Heh." The Boss chuckled slightly, "You already fell for that once, didn't you? Welp, it was worth a shot. Guess you like doing stuff the hard way, huh?"

Energy conjured itself from the ground and began to morph into shapes. The Boss blitzed Spectrum Heart from the left, then the right, then slammed her into the ground. Suddenly, the gravity changed, and Spectrum Heart was sent flying through the forest. She managed to narrowly avoid trees, energy beams, and slashes from his blades, but still took quite a bit of damage. Finally, she found herself able to hold herself in mid-air again. The Gravity changed back to normal, but her Eisei were gone. Suddenly, she saw them appear once more. They showed up on all four sides of her, but there were many more than just two. Jordan dodged back as the first Eisei blasted at the air with gigantic beams of light. More followed before the Eisei returned to circling around the Boss in various patterns.

"It's funny," The Boss said, almost to himself, "Before this got serious, I was genuinely trying to be nice. I was almost hoping we could be friends. One more ally going in to fight the Deity is another we sorely need. Also, I always thought that the story would constantly reset until we got a solid ending, and then you might be happy, you might leave us alone then. I guess that was just wishful thinking."

Spectrum Heart got up and slashed out at him with both weapons, only to find that the'd already moved.

"You didn't answer my question from before." she said with a hiss, "There's no reward waiting for you at the end." She paused to think, "Actually, no. Don't answer that question. every breath you take is another too many!"

"I always wonder..." The Boss said, wistfully ignoring his aggressor, "Maybe you just needed some good friends, and some good times to share with them? Ha. I laugh at my own sarcasm. You're the kind of person who won't ever be happy."

Spectrum Heart found it rather jarring that he could be so nonchalant, and rather nonsensical, but still be deadly serious. She was out of mana, and out of energy, so all she could do was slash out normally. She didn't have any items to further lengthen her assault. Truth be told, she was rather unprepared. The Boss didn't bother attacking.

"You're going to die right here, right now!" Spectrum Heart yelled, but didn't exactly believe it.

"Your health is getting dangerously low." The Boss noted, "What do I care? You'll just keep consuming timelines over and over until..." he opened one eye and glanced over. Spectrum Heart's health and mana were back to full, "Hey, take it from me. Sometime you gotta learn when to quit. I'm gonna go ahead and make that day TODAY."

The Eisei scattered and began to swoop in from different angles, firing off beams of energy as they went, singeing the ground and blasting apart the terrain. Spectrum Heart managed to block one, and avoid several others, but still took damage from most others. She took another swipe at The Boss.

"Look. All this fighting is starting to tire me out." The Boss said casually, "and if you keep pushing me, then I'll be forced to unleash a special on you."

Spectrum Heart unleashed a storm of bullets, blades, and slashes upon The Boss. When the dust settled, his health bar remained untouched. Flames burst from the ground and rushed towards Spectrum Heart. After taking the full impact of several bursts, she managed to slash away the remaining flames.

"Alright." The Boss said, you leave me no choice. On my next turn, I'm using my special. So if you don't want to see it, now would be a good time to give up."

The Boss shot out one arm, and Spectrum Heart found the gravity changed again. Firsty she flew backwards, then she hit the ground, then she flew upwards, then she was sent flying across the woods before being slammed back to the ground again. Spectrum Heart spent the turn recovering and didn't manage to get an attack in.

"Welp." The Boss muttered, "Here goes nothing. Let's see if you can handle this." For the first time that anyone saw his eyes, The Boss tipped the brim of his hat up just slightly and moved a mask to the side. His eyes were litereally glowing with intensity and were fixated on Spectrum Soul. For some reason, she couldn't look away. Before she could realize that anything had happened, her mana was completely gone, and her health had become almost nonexistent.

"No..." Spectrum Heart murmured weakly, "Not... n-not... not yet... please." The Boss walked over to her, his sword drawn, its blade glowing, thirsting for blood. He bent over and looked her in the eye. "At least I can take comfort knowing I spilt your blood." she hissed, "after all, its you up against everyone else. Someone will defeat you. After all... not even you are above death itself. The Boss stood up straight, and began to chuckle, then outright began to laugh out loud. "Why... why are you laughing?"

"It's simple." The Boss snickered, "First off, I'm unscathed. The only spilled blood is yours." Spectrum Heart glanced up at his health bar in horror. Sure enough, it was perfectly full. "Also, I don't need to be, or even plan to be above death." he walked over and grabbed the back of her hood, forcing her to look him in the eye. The sudden shock forced her HDD to deactivate. "I AM DEATH." he said, his voice menacingly different as opposed to before. It had no clear tone. She wasn't even sure if she'd really just heard him speak. "AND FURTHERMORE... I was never here." Jordan had to blink twice and rub her eyes. She was staring up at the trees. The Boss was gone without a trace. Had... had he been there at all? Was she merely imagining things? Jordan looked around for a second. The only energy signature she could detect was the one that emanated from the other version of herself that was also trapped in this timeline. She sighed. That couldn't have been fake. But she couldn't reset to before it... but she was still wounded. Her mana was still regenerating. Jordan stood up and looked around, trying to see where he might have gone.

"Where...?" she asked no one in particular, "How...?" There were too many questions without answers. She'd have to find somewhere to recover and do it quietly. Then she'd have to find him again. Whatever. She knew where he'd be.

* * *

Oliver stood behind Vert, watching her furiously type at her computer. After a few minutes, the room went dark. The power had gone out. Vert sighed.

"Tell me..." she said, "When was the last time I saved that document?"

"Not sure." Oliver admitted, "I wasn't keeping track."

"Fine time for a power outage I suppose." Vert sighed again, "I'll switch gears to a mobile console game."

"Maybe it would be beneficial to have a walk?" Oliver suggested, "With a woman of your stature and proportions, you must be terribly stiff at the moment. Physical movement and exercise may assist with this."

"I'm afraid not." Vert noted, "If I get up to do so, then I lose time for both work and games, both of which are of utmost importance."

"Then at least allow me to alleviate your pain a bit?" Oliver asked, "Mayhaps a brief massage of a bit of a shoulder rub may serve to ease your body?"

"Ooh..." Vert cooed, "I like the sound of that. Shall I wrap myself in a bath towel? Or maybe change into a swimsuit?"

"Neither will be necessary." Oliver informed her, "You said you have no time to waste, so I will make this as quick as possible. Sit up straight in your chair for a moment." Vert did as Oliver instructed. He placed his hands on her shoulders and a brief pulse of energy shot through her. Vert gasped slightly, then realized that she was in absolute ecstasy.

"That's marvelous!" she exclaimed, "How does it work?"

"It's a little bit of science and a little bit of magic." Oliver told Vert, "You muscles and brain function off of similar impulses. Utilizing a bit of healing magic with a quick pulse of energy revivifies your body and mind, as well as easing all of your muscles at once. It's not something I would try without training, but I learned that trick a few years ago and I've ample training when it comes to the temperament of electricity."

"Amazing..." Vert said, "Well then. As soon as the power comes back on, I feel like I'm ready to finish my papers all at once!"

"Good to hear." Oliver said, "Now then, I'll try and see what the problem is. It could be anything from something tripping the circuit breaker, or a power surge, or several other things. Oliver walked over to the basement of the Basilicom with Vert trailing behind. He flipped open a panel on the wall and touched a few switches, then sent a pulse of electricity through the breaker. With a bit of a hum, everything came back on. "And there we are."

"I see..." Vert said. There was a peculiar look in her eye, which Oliver didn't fail to pick up on.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked.

"Not at all." Vert told him, "But sometimes, when I look at you, and spend time with you, it feels like a place has been filled that was empty before. Maybe I feel like you're a bit of a sibling to me? All of the other CPUs have child sisters. I suppose I feel a bit left out normally, but not with you around."

"Interesting." Oliver observed, "I usually don't have that effect on people. I wonder why for you specifically? Is it maybe something about the way we work together, or maybe a correlation between our personalities? Regardless, with the power back on, we can get back to work. Shall we?"

"I would recommend it." Chika added out of nowhere, "That stack of work might last you two days!"

"I doubt it." Oliver said with confidence, "With the two of us together, it can't take much longer than an hour at most." Oliver walked with Vert back to her room where they sat down on either side of the stack of paperwork. "Let's do this." The two went at the stack of papers like pirates at a mound of treasure. It almost seemed like they were competing to see who had the bigger pile of completed papers by the end. When it came down to the last paper, the two reached for it at the same time, but Vert acted half a second faster.

"Ha!" Vert exclaimed, "Oh." followed a second later when she looked at his side of the table. Her stack of papers was about a foot high, which she had been rather proud of, but Oliver had six or seven stacks that must have been about as tall as he was when he was standing straight up.

"Maybe it's a really thick paper." Oliver said, "Who knows? I think it's really close. Maybe the one paper will put you in the lead?" Vert flicked his forehead, then passed him the paper. "Fine, have it your way." Oliver skimmed through the paper, signed the line with Vert's signature, smacked a stamp on it, then placed it on top of his last stack. With all of them together, Oliver and Vert boxed them up and sent them out.

"Hm." Vert sighed with satisfaction, "I actually have ample time for games now." she noted, "This is nice. I wonder if all the other CPUs enjoy these benefits with their younger sisters? I suppose I don't need a younger sister anymore, I have you!"

"Why thank you." Oliver said, with a bow, "Now then, regarding those games, what say I give you a hand with those too? Co-op always lightens the load. What do you say, Sis?" Oliver gave her a wink.

"Sis...?" Vert repeated the word like it was a foreign concept to her.

"Yeah," Oliver confirmed, "Sis. Because you said before that I filled the sibling slot for you. If I'm your brother, then that makes you my sister, yes?"

"Yes..." Vert took a moment to process that, then practically squealed with excitement and squeezed Oliver tighter than she'd ever squeezed before. "Yes! Let us play some games, little brother!"

Oliver paused, "Little brother?" he inquired, "I believe I'm the older sibling here."

Vert giggled, "I assure you, being a goddess makes me appear more youthful than I actually am. I never age you know."

"Yes, I am aware of that." Oliver told her, "And you forget that I am not human either. My looks don't follow my age in the slightest. Probably for the better, else I'd look like a pale raisin."

Now it was Vert's turn to come to a pause, "How old did you say you were again?"

"I didn't."

"I see." Vert said, raising her finger to her lips in thought, "So... which one of us is indeed the elder sibling?"

"Disregard the thought." Oliver said, "The more I think about it, the less it seems to matter. You may continue referring to me as little brother if it pleases you."

Vert didn't hesitate, "Then I will do so. Now then... what shall we play?"

* * *

"That's pretty much how it's going with Vert, but even with all of that, it's still hard for the two of them to keep up." The Boss explained to the CPU candidates. "What about your sisters?"

"Blanc's always in her room!" Ram shouted, "She never plays with us!"

"She's probably quite busy." The Boss explained, "You have to keep in mind that she's got three years of paperwork to catch up on. It's not like you could've done the paperwork, you guys haven't matured yet, so you couldn't have."

"Well," Nepgear murmured, "I've been doing the work myself mostly. I just can't bring it upon myself to ask Jayden's Neptune for help. She's not really my sister."

"I'm sure if you asked she'd love to help." The Boss told her, "After all, that Neptune's not much like yours was. She's actually got a rather solid work ethic, and gets work done both diligently and accurately. Also, she does it all pretty quickly. Couldn't hurt to ask, right?"

"I suppose..." Nepgear mumbled.

"Hey, if it helps, I'll ask with you. Does that help?" The Boss asked. Nepgear nodded slowly after a second or two. "What about you, Uni? Can you stop making out with Bravo long enough to give me an answer?"

"Hah?!" Uni looked up from the couch, "Bravo's not here!"

"I can see your screen. I know you're texting him." The Boss said with a smile, "It's fine, how's it going on their end?"

"Oh, they're doing just fine." Uni informed him, "And for the record, Noire's not doing so great. Ever since she's gotten back and recovered she's been working harder than most of our computer servers."

"I see." The Boss said, "Maybe we can do something as a thanks?"

"Like what?" Nepgear asked, "I like the sound of it, but what would we do?"

"Well I've got a plan." The Boss told them, "Gather round guys. So I'll cover your duties for the day. That includes questing, protection, paperwork, I've got it covered. You guys are gonna bake your sisters a little goody. Nepgear, if you wanna bake one for either Vert or Neptune, is your choice. What I recommend is that you make something a little special for them, and then spend the rest of the day with them. I'll cover you on the responsibility end, so you guys won't have to worry about a thing."

"Well when do we start?" Uni asked, "And what do we need?"

"It may take a day or two to get ready. Leave the preparations to me." The Boss said, "For now, Nepgear, let's go ahead and ask Neptune about getting you some help, and you three..." he regarded the other three candidates. "...I guess... as you were?"

* * *

It did indeed take a day or two for The Boss to fix up the preparations, but it didn't seem like very much time at all. Jayden's Neptune had agreed to stand in for the other Neptune and assist Nepgear with the paperwork and other things. Now that the time had come, The Boss reconvened with the candidates.

"Alright guys, here are your outfits." The Boss handed them some frilly looking uniforms.

"Outfits?" Uni asked, "You didn't say anything about outfits."

"I didn't." The Boss confirmed, "But it might be a nice touch. They're like little maid outfits, because you're baking cakes, right? I figured it might fit in. You don't have to wear it if you don't want to."

"..." Uni looked the costume up and down, then looked at the Boss. She had to admit that the costume looked quite cute. She just hoped she could make it look good on herself. "I'll wear it."

"I... like it." Rom said shyly as normal.

"Goodness..." Nepgear noted, "It looks a bit... frilly."

"You're wearing a sailor uniform." The Boss retorted, "How much different can it be? Go ahead and get changed. I'll get back to work. You can start whenever you like, but remember, they're in the main hall." With that, the boss warped out to the main foyer. "It'll only be a bit longer by this point." he reassured the CPUs.

"I'm quite busy, will it be quick?" Noire asked.

"Yes," Blanc agreed, "And you've kept us in the dark about what it is that we're doing."

"I acknowledge." The Boss confirmed, "There's a reason." The Boss heard the door opening behind him. "That's my cue to leave. I have your responsibilities covered for the day, so do try to relax a bit, ladies? If not for your own sake, then for your sisters." The Boss left the doors as he heard 'Welcome home, my lady!' from behind him. He smiled. "How cute." with a complacent grin, The Boss drew his sword, then plunged it into the ground, releasing a full burst of afterimages, then vanishing.

The Boss was particularly fond of that skill. No one quite knew what it did, it allowed for traversing large distances in one swoop, and required no energy. Furthermore, it would allow him to get a LOT more work done. He checked his phone for any guild quests that needed to be done. It looked like they were already done. Seeing as he had some time to spare, he decided to make a different call. Quite in the literal sense actually, seeing as he pulled out his phone and dialed a number. The voice on the other end was familiar.

"I don't suppose you're doing anything at the moment?" The Boss asked the person on the other end of the line.

"Not much if anything." She replied, "The Deity is still recovering from the last time you defeated her, not to mention she's still waking up. She's mostly ethereal at the moment, so there's not much you could do about it, and not much I could do about it either."

"I see." The Boss followed, "Maybe you'd like to have a discussion over tea? The CPUs are occupied, and their stations are covered by some helpful friends of mine. We won't need to worry about running into them."

"I think that sounds just about lovely." she responded, "Where is it that you would like to meet?"

"Methinks there's a nice little shop in Lowee that you would enjoy." The Boss suggested, "Make sure to dress warmly, and disguise yourself well. I certainly will. If we're seen together in public it would likely cause quite a ruckus."

"We wouldn't want that." she agreed before hanging up. The Boss changed his clothes with his clothing modulator, switching out for a winter jacket and fur lined hat. Otherwise, he looked rather much the same.

It didn't take very long for him to get to the shop, he knew his way there well enough, and his friend had a rather interesting knack for knowing where he was. It was just as soon as he'd leaned back and rested his arms behind his head that his companion had shown up in the seat opposite him. "Good morning, Meridah" The Boss said to her.

"Why do you call me that?" She asked, "I have a name and a title you know."

"I am aware." The Boss replied "But this one suits you better I believe. Besides, referring to you as CFW Magic would probably excite the people more than I care to deal with."

"Why Meridah, though?" Magic asked, "Bravo I can understand, that's a one letter difference. But how did you get Meridah from Magic?"

"Fine." The Boss retorted, "How about Malice?"

"That I will take." Magic approved, leaning back, "So what kind of teas do they have? And why did you think I would enjoy his place?"

"It was just an idea." The Boss noted super casually. "It's mostly a guess, but hey. Let's see whether or not I'm right?"

"Very Well." Magic agreed and the two commenced chatting about the nations and their shares. "Planeptune's shares are down." Magic noted, "Dangerously so. It may begin to have effects on Nepgear if you don't rectify that quickly."

"You are right again." The Boss said, "Maybe you'll lend me a hand? I know you haven't accepted my offer yet, but it still stands."

"I know." Magic reassured him, "And I am still thinking about it. It's a big change. I'll lend you a hand though. My instincts tell me something big is about to happen. Maybe it is time for a change."

"Good to hear." The Boss told her, "Then let us bring change."

* * *

"Come on!" Noire yelled, "There's no way you didn't fake this! Are you cheating somehow?!"

"Goodness, no!" Nepgear replied, "We were all relaxing today! How could I have done anything about it?"

"Everyone calm down please." The Boss said as he came in through the door, followed by a companion in a cloak, as well as Bravo, Steamax, and Affimojas. "Whatever could you be arguing about?"

"Planeptune's shares suddenly lurched upwards." Vert told him, "They are at fifty percent. Even if we are at two hundred by a total, this is a twenty percent increase in shares in a single day. If this continues, then it threatens the other nations and-"

"That's my fault." The Boss interrupted her. "The shares were at an imbalance. I fixed them. You are all equal by percentages. Everyone is at fifty percent while Arfoire has gone down to zero. This is an improvement, yes? Before you were all below twenty five and Arfoire was above a hundred."

"Regardless, there's no way Planeptune could've gotten this far!" Blanc shouted, "It's impossible-"

"I already gave you an explanation." The Boss said, fixing his black gloves. "My companions and I were working quests since right after breakfast. Isn't it just common sense that shares would change?"

"But how could you change them so quickly?" Vert asked, "That doesn't seem to follow your common sense."

"Yeah," Noire spat, "Do you have any idea how hard we work everyday for our nations?"

"I do." The Boss said, "I did not say you do not work hard, I just noted that I can work harder. That's all."

Vert sighed, "Maybe you are right. We took a day off today by your wish, though. Does that not make you to blame?"

"Yes," The Boss confirmed, "I said that too, did I not? There is no need to be ashamed or upset about any of it. I believe I did everyone a favor."

"Yeah, Blanc!" Ram suddenly interjected. The Boss was surprised to see Ram jump to his side. "Don't be a dummy! He made our shares go up! That's a good thing, right?"

"Happy..." Rom said quietly.

There was a subtle rumble. The Boss turned his hat downwards. "We'll settle this later. Malice, I believe you have somewhere to be." his cloaked companion disappeared, "Now then, I will take a moment to get ready. I recommend you lot do the same." The Boss retreated up the stairs.

Twenty minutes later, the group stood on a beach, dressed in swimsuits. "Why are we here again?" Uni asked, "And how come YOU didn't have to dress up?" she pointed at The Boss.

"Because this is your assignment." he replied, "I myself have something else to deal with. I'll see you the next time we regroup. Tootles." The Boss teleported out.

* * *

"So here we are again." The Boss said, "Must we really do this again?"

"There's naught I can do about her rising again." Magic informed him, "But I'll stay out of your way. Otherwise you'd be fighting me again as well."

"Right, Not like I'd want that." The Boss replied, "Let's keep this quick."

The Deity roared as she began to construct herself from the stones among the graveyard. The Boss yawned as the Deity began to finish her body. The Boss began to draw a weapon when the Deity exploded and collapsed again.

"How disappointing." Jayden said, "I expected more of a fight from the Deity of Sin. The next time you revive, I expect more. That is... if I'm still here." The man up and left with his six wings. The Boss looked on with curiosity.

"Interesting." he stated. "Methinks this requires further inspection. I'm gonna head back to the Basilicom for now and see what I can do about my current standings with the prince.

* * *

A few minutes later, The Boss and Oliver were sitting across from each other in a rather plain room in the basement of the Basilicom.

"So look," The Boss said, sitting across a metal table from Oliver. The room bore a few similarities to an interrogation room, what with its stone walls and dull features. "I understand that you don't like me, and there's not much I can do to change your opinion, but we need to be able to trust each other. We need to put aside our differences and be able to trust each other for the guys that we are. If not, then we're not going to be very effective as a team."

"You get right to the point." Oliver said, "I respect that. But before we begin, I'd like to ask why Maxi isn't here? Does he not have to do this, or is he doing it later?"

"Maxi's lasseiz-faire attitude means that he transitions into other teams rather well if he knows the people or relates to them in some manner that he finds acceptable." The Boss clarified, "He has no qualms with me, for whatever reason, meaning that we can mutually trust each other in combat. It's true, we could all work on our lily-ranks a bit, but the one between yourself and I is..." he paused, "There's no way around it. It's abysmal. The lily-rank between you and I has a value of negative ten. Negative numbers should be possible, let alone the fact that you've maxed the scale out in reverse."

"There's no need for us to work together." Oliver put simply, "So whether I trust you or not shouldn't be a problem. We both have our separate teams, so collaboration isn't a requirement here."

"False." The Boss stated outright, "Collaboration is an utmost necessity for all of us. As the deity grows stronger, we too must strengthen as a team in order to stand a chance. Whether you like it or not, come the final battle, we will all be working as one."

Oliver sighed, "Fine." he took a few seconds to think. "Where I come from, there are no numerical values on affinities and support ranking. There's an A, B, and C class for that instead. The only complexities in the system are the two specials; S rank for married couples, and A+ rank for those who would be considered best friends, or otherwise inseparable. In other words, I'm gonna need a bit more of an explanation than just 'we're at negative ten and that's bad.' So how does a 'lily-rank' work?"

"Okay..." The Boss had to think. He hadn't expected Oliver to not know what a lily-rank was. "So the lily-rank system is very much like the support system you're talking about, I believe. It measures the trust and affinity between two people in your party. For example, you and Maxi have about an eight. You're best friends, but you wouldn't trust the other with everything. You and Jayden had a nine. You were closer than you were to Maxi, but still not as close as you could have been. The meaning of the number changes, that usually depends on who that person is to you. A ten can mean a lover, or your closest friend. A zero can either be neutrality or particular disdain. In our case, at negative ten, I don't think either of us particularly trusts the other at the moment."

"How does one check this rank value?" Oliver inquired, "I can check support ranks through my party roster, but I don't have one of those for this world. What am I dealing with in this world?"

"Good question." The Boss confirmed, "I was just about to go over that." The Boss pulled out a tablet-like device. "You can check the status of not only yourself, but your team members and lily ranks from your phone. Try using the status app a little later and having a look at the features."

"I'll set a reminder." Oliver noted, "That seems like a useful app. Is it automatically downloaded, or... oh, here. I've got it already. Huh."

"Right." The Boss said, "So, what I think we need is to know each other a bit better. For as much intel as I have on most everyone else, I have little to no intel at all on you. Not even an origin story."

"Yes." Oliver confirmed, "I do my best to typically keep that a secret from most people."

"It worked," The Boss said with a respectful nod, "So here's what I propose. You get a question, then I get a question. You can fire as personal a question as you want at the other, and you only have to answer to the extent that you feel comfortable."

"Fine by me." Oliver said, "And for the record, it says that our lily rank is negative five, not ten."

"Then we're already making progress." The Boss said with a smile, "I'll let you have the first question."

"Alright." Oliver had to think carefully. How could he word a question to get the most information out of it? "I just have to ask this for my own sanity." Oliver said, "Why'd you do it?"

"I beg your pardon?" The boss asked, "I don't understand the question."

"I figured." Oliver said, "Why'd you kill Jayden? I know that you at least tried. Why?"

"Why?" The Boss echoed, "There's only so much a dimension can take before it collapses in on itself from stress. Having a person like Jayden around doesn't help with that. It can also help to relieve stress if executed properly, but he's very clearly not even trying."

"I see." Oliver said quietly. "I don't know if he knew that."

"I doubt he did, but an explanation would likely not have changed his mind." The Boss explained. "I did what I had to. But keep in mind, Jayden is over in the main hall, taking care of papers. Clearly he's not dead then."

Oliver winced, "Fine. Your turn."

"Alright." The Boss said, "Tell me about yourself. To be more specific, can you summarize an origin story for me? Huge generalizations are fine, I just want an idea."

"Okay..." Oliver said, crossing his arms, closing his eyes, and leaning back into his chair, "...well the story goes that the exalt and lady of a nation are taking a walk through their home nation. When passing between cities on a dirt road, a small wiggling parcel is found by the side of said road. Inside the basket is a little boy with golden hair and heterochromia iridis. The world's never seen something like him before. One eye is blood red, and the other is sky blue. The two rulers take pity on the boy and raise him as their own alongside their two daughters. The boy's a quick learner. The mages and teachers have taught him all they can by the time he's five, and when he comes the age of seven, his uncle begins to teach him how to fight; first with his fists, then with a blade. It's not long before the kid's learned every kind of weapon they've got. Now the kid's eight and he still doesn't have a name. One day, the kid's out in the yard playing with the younger of his two older sisters, and they're attacked by extremists from the nation over. The sister's scared out of her mind, but the kid... he's not going quietly. He grabs a pair of armoured gauntlets from a knight's set of armor, and attacks the first thug, then takes out the next before being stabbed through the gut by the third. But... the kid's not dead, no. The kid pulls the sword from his gut and stabs it through the stomach of the guy that gave it to him. His sister, still young, and not quite well versed in grammar looks at him and says: 'Livier.' It's an old word for the one who lives through the day. From then on, she calls him Livier until the parents hear of it, and adapt it to Oliver." Oliver spread his hands in a sort of 'ta-da' gesture. "Names and childhood aside, on the kid's fifteenth birthday, something happens. A girl shows up, being chased by something. Something sinister. The kid being the person he is steps in and kills the monster and learns that the girl was being chased by the leader of a nation for performing a bit of espionage for her home nation. Be it as it may, this girl comes from another planet entirely. You may know her. Her name's Falcom."

"Falcom?" The Boss had to think, "Espionage isn't really her thing. The only espionage mission she's run was to see whether or not Loween servers had been hacked by Lastationese services."

"Exactly." Oliver confirmed, "That in and of itself required hacking into the Loween servers to check for their integrity. In the process she was caught by White Heart and chased off the planet. White Heart sent a beast after her to finish her off. Unfortunately for her, I unknowingly threw a wrench in that plan. White Heart caught wind of it soon after and came after me. I ran back to my planet, but she followed. My parents died defending me from her attack. In a fit of rage afterwards, I managed to drive her off. It was thanks to my sisters that I didn't kill her outright."

"I see." The Boss noted, "that explains why you and Blanc don't get along particularly well."

"We've mutually tried, and almost succeeded, to kill each other in the past of reasons both touchy to the other." Oliver added, "I think that's understandable. I'm rather certain that she remembers."

"That would certainly put a damper on things." The Boss noted, "So what's your next question?"

"I suppose I'd ask the same question you just asked me." Oliver told him.

"Alrighty then." The Boss said, "In a land far, far away, another timeline away from here, existed a nation named Unity. It was ruled over by two CPUs in tandem, a brother and a sister CPU. One of them was the candidate to the other, I don't particularly remember which. But anyway, this nation is one of complete and utter peace. Its shares are never in danger, the people are always happy, and the relations with the other nations are fine. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Nothing lasts forever. After a few decades, the nation is attacked by another nation, one seeking conquest and unification under one rule. Naturally, Unity fights back, but there's no real military power; it's only the two CPUs and whatever fighting capabilities they've got. Naturally, it doesn't go very well. The brother winds up sacrificing himself to finish the job, and both nations are never heard from again."

"So what does that have to do with you?" Oliver asked, "Sorry, sorry, continue."

"Well, be it as it may, someone from Unity survives and..." The Boss Paused, "Well one way or another, I wound up on a doorstep in the rain. My mother took me in and raised me as her own, similarly to what happened with you. My mother was a brilliant woman. Smartest person you'd ever meet, and always right, no matter what. I haven't seen a single time where she was wrong." The Boss gave a weak huff of a laugh, "I taught myself to fight when I was young, and she helped me to continue learning. I was never as brilliant as she was, but she never gave up on me. It's interesting... I was... away from home for a time, a few years, and when I came back, she was the first one to welcome me without any concerns. There was no questioning process from her, I just... spilled my heart out in front of her. And she listened. And she helped me. Like always. I owe her everything." The Boss stopped for a moment before facing Oliver again. "Guess I'm a bit of a Mama's Boy, huh?"

"It's understandable." Oliver reassured him, "Your mother sounds like a wonderful person. How... did you lose her though?"

"Well, I'll pretend like you haven't asked me three questions in a row now..." The Boss said quietly, "But... I was indecisive. I made the wrong decision. My friends paid the price for it. Now... I guess the best way of phrasing it is..." he paused to work out his wording, "With nothing to go home to, I have nothing to lose. Killing is something I do well. Be it a monster or another person at the end of my blade, I act by premises of loyalty to a paycheck. Right now I'm on contract to you guys under a pretty high payment, so there's no need to worry about where my arms are aiming."

Oliver nodded slowly, then held his hands out in a 'continue' gesture.

"Alright." The Boss said, contemplating his next question, "I guess this is a bit unrelated to what we just talked about, but how much do you work? How many hours in a day do you spend working, or whatever, do you know what I mean?"

"Yes, I'm rather sure I do at least." Oliver replied, "I'd say at least twenty. Every hour I spend awake is another that I'm at least thinking about our next move, if not putting it to action."

"I can see that by observing." The Boss agreed, "I guess I was just clarifying."

"Well, speaking of clarification," Oliver continued, "Why did you tell me so much about your mother? Does she mean that much to you? Do you trust me that much? Or maybe... There is another reason?"

"Yes, well some combination of the three I'd say." The Boss explained, "In the interest of building trust between us, and because she's such a large part of my life, I told you about her because it's a common element. Everyone has a mother, maybe not a father, I don't seem to have one, but I know for a fact that everyone has a mother. The father may not be in the ER room when his child is born, but the mother has no choice." Oliver nodded in understanding, "so I guess my next question is... You disappear at the end of the day. Where is it that you go?"

Oliver paused for a fraction of a second. "I go home. I have a house. At the end of the day, I return home until the next day when I return to action."

"I see." The Boss said quietly, "Do you still live with your mother? When was the last time you talked to her?"

"Ah... Yes." Oliver said calmly, "I suppose I do still live with my mother to some definition. And... I talked to her just last night. I said goodbye to her on the way out the door as well this morning." He thought for a moment. The Boss noted how he'd gotten quieter than he normally was. His voice was severely less confident as well. Every sentence seemed to be slightly incomplete. As astonishing as it was, Oliver almost seemed weak in that moment. "You may continue asking. I asked you several questions in succession before. You may do the same"

"No, I don't think that's necessary." The Boss tried to say.

"I have no further questions." Oliver insisted, "You may continue."

"Very well..." The Boss said, "What was the last thing you talked to her about? Your mother I mean?"

"Well..." Each and every one of Oliver's words were clearly labored. His breathing had gone irregular as well. "I go home every night... And I tell her about my day and what happened. When I wake up in the morning, I bid her good day, and I head off to join the front again."

"Okay..." The Boss had to admit that he was a bit out of his comfort zone here. "Well... when was the last time you had a laugh with her? What's her favorite food?"

"Those two tie in with each other, funnily enough." Oliver said, looking down and to the left slightly. He didn't seem wholly 'there' any more. "Her favorite food... she would make pies with all sorts of different stuff in them. The special rhubarb one was her favorite, I remember that. And when she was teaching me how to make them... we added too much of one of the ingredients. I was never great at cooking, but we pretty much blew up the pie. Heh..."

The Boss pondered his next move carefully. "Okay. Well... Is there anything else? When was the last time you had a meal with her? You said you live together, yes?"

"Um, yeah." Oliver said. His voice was clearly distant now, "we don't really eat together anymore. Just... We don't. It doesn't work that way."

It doesn't work that way? "I see..." The Boss was confused, but played the next line as easily as he could. "Have you ever told your mother that you love her? And what makes her happy?"

"What makes her happy..." Oliver didn't phrase it as a question. "And no. I never got the chance to tell her that I loved her. But I did... Gods... I loved her more than anything else in this existence..." The Boss was curious, and made a quizzical face, but didn't ask. Oliver picked up and explained. "I used to tell myself... Mom doesn't love me." he explained, "I could do something perfectly, and she would look the other way. She never has time for me. Whenever I asked her for some time to talk, she was never available. I was never given a birthday, nor a cake like other children. She never listened to me. Not once. To her, I was nothing but a bad boy. A sorry excuse for what could have been a third perfect daughter." Oliver paused for a moment, "Sorry."

"No, no." The Boss said, "I understand. Take your time."

"Right." Oliver continued, "I asked her once, for a computer. Or a phone. One or the other. I knew several kids who owned them. She denied me. She told me that I didn't need it..." Oliver paused again, "I made a mistake. I was selfish. I told her that she only cared for herself. I told her what I'd thought up to that point. I told her that since she didn't care about me, she could live without me. I stormed out of the house. That was when I ran into Falcom. The next time I saw my mother... she died protecting me."

"Ah..." The Boss wasn't sure what else to say, "I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"No, it's fine." Oliver quickly replied, "It's for the better. This is about bonding, right?" The Boss nodded. Oliver continued, "I was never right about her. She never had time to talk because she was basically a queen. She always had something to do, yet she still made time for me. It was never that she didn't care, she just had high expectations. She knew I could do things well, she wanted me to do them perfectly. I never had a birthday because they just found me by the road. No one knew my birthday. Hell... I still don't know my birthday." Oliver took a moment and laid his face in his hands. To The Boss's surprise, Oliver actually sobbed. He didn't normally show any form of emotion, let alone weakness. "She left me a small box of things that she had meant to give me. There were sums of money, for accommodations and the like. But there was one... labeled for a cake. She meant for me to buy one if I ever figured it out. And..." Oliver pulled his phone out of his pocket. It was old. The screen was cracked. The antennae was broken. "...A phone."

Suddenly, The Boss came to understand the importance of Oliver's phone and why he hadn't checked for any apps. Matter of fact, it was questionable whether or not you could download an app on such a device. "Alright. What if I proposed the idea that you could share one more meal with her?" The Boss asked.

"Really?" Oliver said, "Under normal circumstances I'd call it impossible, but you've caught my interests. Plus, I don't doubt that you would have something up your sleeve."

"Yeah." The Boss said, "And while we're at it, I'll need your phone." Oliver made a face that suggested he wasn't so keen on that idea. "I promise I won't break it. It's just... your phone looks... archaic." Oliver looked at his phone. "I can upgrade it without fully replacing it."

"Fine." Oliver said after some time, "I suppose an upgrade is much overdue. But try not to do anything I wouldn't do."

"What, like get a new phone entirely?" The Boss asked with an air of joking, "No, I'll just upgrade yours. All the basic components will still be there, it'll still be the same phone, it'll just work a little differently. Much differently probably. But that's besides the point. Here." The Boss handed Oliver a small silver gem, "This will come in handy when the time comes."

Oliver took the gem and examined it. "Where did you find this?" he asked, "Also, do you have any idea how rare these are?"

"I'm full aware." The Boss told him, "But I think you'd put it to better use than I can. The only person I could revive is much farther gone than I could reach."

"Still." Oliver said, "If I exhaust your supplies-"

"Who said you're exhausting my supplies?" The Boss asked, "I think you misunderstand. That's not the only one I have. If it was the only one I had, no one here would ever know I had it."

"I see." Oliver said with a grin, "To be honest, I can respect that. A shield of secrecy is necessary sometimes."

"Methinks there's more irony in the fact that you're telling me this than you know." The Boss said to him. "The onyl reason I do not use them myself is because there is no point."

"So you've surrendered to fate." Oliver told him, "An end worse than death itself."

"Death may be sweeter than you know." The Boss retorted, "I myself have better things to do. I've not surrendered to fate, I'm merely being pragmatic. The world does not hate me; hatred is too tame a word."

"Now you're speaking in riddles again." Oliver pointed out.

The Boss chuckled, "I'm aware." he informed Oliver, "But sometimes speaking in riddles is better than being on the other end. You do a fair bit of riddle talking yourself."

"It's true." Oliver admitted with a bit of a grin, "I can attest to that. Still, I'm not sure if now is the time."

"Time is no longer my concern." The Boss said, standing up from his chair. He opened the door and held it open. "I think we've better things to do than continue this conversation. Here, take this on your way out."

Oliver took the small silver gem from the Boss's hand. "Have you any idea how rare these are?"

"I'm aware." The Boss told him, "Don't worry about it. It will become important when the time is right. I myself have nothing to use it on."

Oliver decided that the time for asking questions was over. "Right." he said, "There is work to be done."

* * *

The Boss heaved a sigh. Finally, today was pretty much over. There had been some rather interesting escapades, but the important thing was that they'd made it to the end of the day without regressing. The Boss had just about settled when he heard the door creak open. Unfortunately, night vision was not one of his skills. Without any further warning, someone grabbed him and dragged him out the window. The Boss put up minimal resistance seeing as whoever was carrying him was flying. Falling from this distance was probably unhealthy. The Boss tried to figure out where it was they were going. Looking down at the landscape and assessing the direction they were moving, it became increasingly apparent where it was they were going.

The Gamindustri Graveyard.


	36. Twin Blades

**A/N: Maybe I've got a proper upload schedule finally fixed? Maybe not. But I can pretend. No point in stalling any further.**

* * *

The Boss regained his footing, then smirked. "Saw this coming a mile away." he said without a hint of worry in his voice, "So, dragged me out here to finish the job, huh?"

Jayden said nothing, but kept his gaze, glaring at The Boss with all the rage he kept.

"Yeah, I figured." The Boss said, "The only reason you can talk is to deceive, isn't it? They really think you're the one hero who can defeat Arfoire. That's not a question, I know that's what they think but, you haven't fooled everyone." The Boss smirked, "Jayden was better than you are. He'd never sacrifice others for success. The only person Jayden could ever sacrifice was himself. He never even killed most of his enemies. Somehow, he showed mercy, one way or another." The Boss stopped and laughed for a second, "Listen to me, ranting on about him. You'd almost think that..." Suddenly, his attitude changed, "Forget this. I don't need to act in front of you. You know exactly who I am, so there's no reason to pretend. Let's get to the point. That face you're wearing... I won't grace it with a description."

Jayden sneered.

"What should I call you?" The Boss asked, "It'll just get confusing if I call you Jayden. You're the original one, right? Your energy says it all. Out of every Jayden, you're the first one ever drafted and created. Fallen in love with a girl of almost royal status, only to be killed by those you called friends. Your timeline was changed somehow though. However, I don't think that was by the grace of 24's mercy. I think the name 'Origin' will do for you."

Origin cocked his head sideways and opened his mouth into a toothy grin, revealing a set of sharp teeth.

The Boss remained unfazed, "Yes, that's right. You were also partially a horror story, weren't you? Tragic. Truly. Totally. Here's the deal though. This timeline isn't just yours anymore. It's a blur of multiple different timelines, and more are joining by the second. This is almost climactic, isn't it? The character created first versus the one edited last. Let's see who wins: experience, or protagonist armor? Magic or technology? Defense or offense? More importantly, who represents what characteristics? I think that'll be left to the readers to decide."

The Boss drew his blade. Origin followed.

"I'd almost be willing to bet that some people, if not most people saw this coming." The Boss said, and reached his left arm over to the right side of his cloak. He planted his blade in the ground for a moment and whipped the cloak off. He stared Origin down with his own eyes. He picked the blade back up and readied it. "Let's do this."

 _(Undertoad-Revolution works rather well here.)_

Underneath the cloak was none other than Jayden. THE Jayden. Jayden leveled his blade, Gehaburn's sisterblade, Infinity, at Origin.

"Tell me..." Origin noted, "Who are you? The fact that you can wield Infinity without wielding Gehaburn confuses me. Gehaburn has told you that it is impossible to wield his sisterblade without wielding him, has he not?

"I'm sure he told me something of the sort." Jayden replied, "I just didn't care to listen." Jayden gave Infinity a spin. "I may not have my normal powers, but I have more than enough to defeat a murderer like you. Let's see how you face up against my 'Whirling Dragon!' Fall to the edge of my blade!"

Jayden rushed forwards and lashed out at Origin, but instead of going for a straight attack, Jayden threw the slash at an angle such that Origin couldn't fully block it. "Your technique is interesting." Origin noted. Jayden whirled the blade back around and caught Origin twice before he could recover enough to start dodging attacks. Jayden kept up a relentless stream of attacks, lashing out in unpredictable places. For as well as he could read patterns, Origin could see that there was none to his attack pattern. Jayden never attacked the same place twice in a row, nor did her ever repeat himself on where he struck out at. Origin countered at what he believed to be an opening, but Jayden's technique covered his defense as well. The whirling motions of his blade looked more flashy than necessary at first, but they deflected attacks that came in from 90% of any angle that Origin could attack from. Origin began a full out assault, attacking so quickly that he created a whole cloud of slashes in front of him. "You are weak!" the original Jayden shouted. Jayden stepped back twice, removing him from the area of effect. Origin went to step forward, but Jayden changed tactics.

"Had enough of 'Whirling Dragon?' Let's change it up, then!" Jayden drew both of his shields, "Let's try 'Titan Vanguard' instead! Look familiar?" As Origin carried out a tirade of slashes, Jayden's dual shield technique kept him covered and unscathed. Origin tried to unleash a powerful horizontal slash and break Jayden's guard, but Jayden was much more well fortified than he expected. "I think you're weaker than you expect." Jayden noted, "All of your changes to the timeline have weakened you. The worse the ending the worse the pain, right? This was almost a conquest ending. It still isn't looking much better. Surely you must know that. Still, killing to gain strength is no way to solve your problems. You couldn't even satiate yourself with monsters. You just had to have more, didn't you?" Origin attacked again, crashing up against Jayden's shields. The boy stood his ground. Jayden countered, bringing his leg around past Origin's blade and kicking him across the side of the head. Origin was knocked back and skidded across the dusty ground of the Graveyard.

"You are a fool." Origin said, "To think that you can save this timeline. The only way to fix it now is to reset it. With both you and Jordan in this timeline, I find myself unable to do so. With you out of the way, I need only to get rid of Jordan. She is weaker than you are. Easy pickings. If that damn golem hadn't picked her up..."

"Golem you say?" Jayden asked, "I don't suppose that might be Luno? I imagine it might be. I won't let you harm them. I won't let you harm anyone else. You say you want to reset the timeline? Think about it. I doubt you would survive. This is not just a conquest ending anymore. With the addition of the other titles, this could mean the entire destruction of the Hyperdimension and any of its variations."

Origin finally found a hole in Jayden's defense. He lashed out. Jayden covered himself back up, but Origin had already figured him out. Jayden's health began dropping rapidly. Jayden flipped backwards and regained his bearings.

"Methinks we misunderstand each other." Jayden said, "Now that I listen to you, and I know your true intentions... I can tell you're not lying... Even so... unless it is that you are willing to stand down, I will defend myself and the rest of Gamindustri. Forsaken Seraph!" Jayden's tactics changed again. He put away one shield and drew Infinity in his hand. His wings came out now, showering the Graveyard in a violet light. His health shot back up to full. "No reason to linger with this stance. Now then... 'Dread Knight!'" Jayden drew all four of his shields now and drew Zhen in his left hand opposite of Infinity. "My first and final blade as of right now. See how you fair against the two of them!"

Jayden jumped forwards with all four shields ready. Origin could find no opening and took the full force of the shield tackle. Jayden took to the air after reflecting off of Origin and vigorously spinning before extending one leg.

"I learned this from a book! Wind Blade Kick!"

Jayden brought his foot across Origin so quickly that it slashed through his defenses. Jayden didn't stop there.

"Every strike carries the full force of my burning will! This one will make Iffy proud! Bladed Wind!" Jayden lashed out with a flurry of punches, each one carrying a slashing force instead of a blunt one. This blitz of attacks caught Origin off guard, causing him to take quite a bit of damage from the onslaught. Jayden whirled around after the special and jumped up and over Origin's counter move. While in the air, Jayden turned over and whipped his foot around, catching Origin by the side of his head. Origin flew back a fair distance, then skidded to a stop. Jayden paused here. "Like I said before. I really don't think we're fighting for the right reason. If you just stand down and talk to me about this, then I'm sure we can work out a solution."

"My solution is to give the world one more shot in the hope that someone will succeed where I fail." Origin said, "But unless I know for sure, then I can't do it. Not yet."

 _(You can cut the music here)_

Jayden dropped his defenses, "I see." he took a deep breath, "So you'd sacrifice yourself for Gamindustri to give it one last chance?" Origin nodded.

"That has been my intent this whole time." Origin added, "I merely needed you out of the way so I could have the power to reset the world again."

"Then the only one you need to convince is Jordan." Jayden noted, "but I dunno where she is."

Origin sighed, then crouched down and laid Gehaburn down. Jayden became rather concerned when Origin began to cough up blood. Jayden hurried over. To his dismay, his healing spells weren't available at the time.

"I see..." Origin said all of a sudden, "You're... human. How? How did you accomplish this?"

"I don't think accomplish is the right word." Jayden said, "It's a long story, one that I don't think I have enough time to relay." Maxi and Oliver arrived on the scene now followed by Histoire and Jayden's Neptune. "A day late and a dollar short guys." Jayden told them.

"I was a fool to think that I could defeat you." Origin stated, "Even if I could have defeated you, your friends would have arrived and finished the job."

Maxi laughed quietly, "No," he said confidently, "I don't think you understand, Origin." he told the original Jayden, "The three of us... we share a bit of a special connection. Whether we showed up or not, you never had a chance against Jay here."

Oliver gently laid a hand on Jayden's back and stood beside him. "For as much of an innocent blueberry as he can be at times, he does get his jobs done." Jayden smiled at Oliver. Oliver smiled back. "I never doubted you for a second, buddy."

"The thing you failed to understand is how Jayden works," Histoire explained, "Not only did you underestimate my maternal ability to tell who my own damn son is, but you also missed who he is."

Histoire held out her hand and gestured to Jayden. "The loneliest people can be the kindest. Despite having a cold side, on the inside they kindle flames that can warm those they care about and keep them going. The most damaged people are the wisest. The experiences they've witnessed and gone through have left them with more than just pain, and they can guide their friends and followers to brighter days. And of course..." Histoire finally went over and hugged Jayden, "The saddest people smile the brightest. Even though I know my Jayden has seen far too much to be happy or even innocent, when he smiles there's no way to stay upset for very long. I can't even keep track of the number of times his smile has brightened my day. Jayden is all three of these at once you see."

"Yes..." Origin admitted, "I understand."

"And all of this..." Histoire went back over to Origin Jayden and looked him in the eye, "All because he doesn't want to see others suffer the way he has. All for the sake of a brighter future where people can be safe and free from the pain he bears."

"Yes." Origin struggled to his feet. "Allow me to redeem myself." Origin held out his hand to Jayden. Magic energy swirled around in his hand and laid itself into a clock design.

"You would reset this world?" Jayden asked, "But... what would that do? This timeline has merged with so many others and... you would practically end yourself."

"I am aware." Origin said, "I believe I have experienced what you might call a change of heart. If I sacrifice the rest of my energy to reset the timeline, then I can give you one final chance to make things right."

"That's noble of you," Oliver told him, "But if I read the previous few paragraphs correctly, you're still incapable of doing so. You still need to find Jordan and convince her to give up the power to reset the timeline. If we can't do that, then we're done for."

"Jayden..." Histoire said, looking over at him, "Remember... we're in this timeline for a reason. We need to save our own timeline, right? We can't save every timeline the way we saved Gamacademi."

Jayden took a moment to think about that. Histoire was right. That's why he was here. But... "You're right, Mom." he said, "But I don't think it's that simple anymore. Here. Have a look at this." Jayden held out a small stone to Histoire. She gasped at it. "This is a CPU Memory Core, right? They don't belong in this dimension. It isn't for me, it isn't for Maxi, otherwise it would be red, and it certainly isn't here for Ollie, because he's already pretty much on that level. This core isn't bound for anyone, so there's no reason it should be able to jump dimensions, right?"

"Right you are..." Histoire said, "So what you mean to tell me is that this is no longer one separate timeline?"

"That's right." Jayden told her, "We're not just fighting for them anymore."

"We're fighting for everyone then?" Maxi inquired. Jayden nodded. Maxi sighed.

"I don't see what the difference is." Neptune said bluntly. Everyone looked at her, "We've been fighting for everyone the whole time, haven't we? For the friends we meet, and the people we see and hear about, for the places we go, for all the things we want to do... that's what we're fighting for, right? So why's that change anything?"

"It's only a physical difference." Jayden replied, "Otherwise it's just the same, Nep. I couldn't have said it better myself."

"Then let's find Jordan." Maxi said, "Histoire, Neptune, would you be so kind as to take Origin back to the Basilicom and have someone treat his wounds? Ollie, Jayden, and I will go and find Jordan."

"Remember." Origin said before the boys left, "There are two of them. A child and a young woman. You must find both."

"Right." Jayden reassured him, "Due to plot convenience, I know exactly where to look. However, it's going to take some time to get there. Also, since we're here in the graveyard, we might as well deal with the deity and postpone her awakening just a bit more. Can I have a line break, please?"

* * *

Luno and the little girl laid on the floor of an alcove in the side of a mountain. Luno could sense gentle vibrations in the ground. Likely another emergence of the deity. They were getting more frequent. Of course, it also meant that someone was putting the Deity down every time she came up, but Luno decided that it was just about time to put a stop to it. He gradually got to his feet and scooped up the little girl, placing her atop his shoulder.

"It is a lovely day today." the little girl said.

Luno continued towards the left and headed towards the graveyard. As he walked along, several birds were disturbed and flew off. The little girl seemed to take joy in watching them flutter through the air. Luno sensed that the narrative had changed dramatically. Previous experienced suggested that this was important. He wandered further through the forest, towards the city. Naturally, there was a gap between the Graveyard and the other landmasses, and there was no bridge to speak of; Luno would have to find another way around. It was later in the evening as Luno and the girl wandered out of the forest and into the plain surrounding Planeptune. Luno looked back and forth. The girl hummed a happy little melody. He looked at her at mentally checked to see that she remembered the skill they'd practiced. Luno walked over to the darker side of the cliff that lead off to the graveyard. Using his left hand, he scaled the tree while holding onto the girl with his right arm. When he reached the top, he pointed to where the end of the tree's shadow was. It was just barely on the edge of the landmass of the Graveyard. Luno nudged the girl and she prepared herself for the jump.

In an instant, they teleported through the shadow and wound up on the other landmass. Luno stood straight up again and continued to walk with the girl still on his shoulder. She seemed unaffected by the transport; clearly she'd done this before. The bottoms of Luno's feet spread out slightly and he gracefully and smoothly slid across the ground on the shadows cast by other random junk around the graveyard. As if objecting to his easy progression, someone landed in front of him. Luno brought himself up to a halt as the person stood up in front of him.

"Bringing a little girl into the Gamindustri Graveyard?" she asked, "I hope you know what you're doing. I'd better tag along just in case you don't." She was wearing a red hoodie that came to a curly point. Her eyes looked like Jayden's and shifted across the different colours of the rainbow over time. Her hair was a similar colour to CFW Magic's hair. "My name's Jordan, just like that little girl you've got."

Luno made a slow easy nod before continuing deeper into the graveyard. Jordan hovered just slightly above the ground and move just as silently and smoothly as he did as he slid over the shadows. There weren't many monsters around, meaning that something had scared them away or, more likely, attracted them elsewhere.

Mini Jordan, on Luno's shoulder, leaned forward. "Monsters?" she asked. Luno shook his head, then held a finger to the place where his lips would be if he a mouth.

"There will be monsters." Jordan assured Mini Jordan, "But they're probably busy. For now, let's just worry about getting to the deity's spawn point."

It wasn't a far ways to get there, but when they arrived a battle was already in place. Jayden, Maxi, Oliver, Bravo, Affimojas, Steamax, and even the remaining CFWs were fighting against waves of monsters as the deity slowly rose behind them. Oliver caught Luno and Jordan out of the corner of his eye and pointed them out to the others. As they ran down the small hill to join the fray, they unleashed their full might. Jordan activated her HDD, and Luno used his Legacy skill once more. This gave him a black and purple suit of armor, accompanied by a giant (but adequately sized for him) lance and shield. Mini Jordan got her own lance and armor, but not a shield. Luno took the vanguard with Jayden and Spectrum Heart while Maxi, Oliver, and Mini Jordan hung back.

"We need to hold off the monsters until the deity can awaken!" Jayden shouted over, "I know that sounds weird, but I'll explain in more detail as we go!"

Luno drove his lance through the face of one monster, then swept his lance back around over his shoulder and cleaved two dozen or so monsters in half in the process. Jayden lashed out with Fidelity and Gehaburn, slashing several monsters to pixels with each attack, continuing his assault with no faults. Spectrum Heart employed the use of her Axe and Rapier to both stab and slash out at monsters in a wide area all at once. Oliver had his blade plunged into the ground and was using a flurry of bolts to rain down death from the sky. Mini Jordan was using her lance to fire off bolts of energy. While not as devastating as the others, her bolts healed her teammates for each point of damage she dealt to an enemy. While everyone else had taken an approach fitting to their character, Maxi had personally decided to jump the shark entirely and had pulled a minigun out of... somewhere? Instead of firing bullets, his gun shot fireballs, and at a ridiculous rate for sure. Furthermore, each fireball exploded on impact, dealing extra explosive and fire damage.

"We're getting close!" Jayden called out, "Here's the deal! If we wait for the deity to be fully awake before we knock her back over, then we'll buy ourselves extra time before she can recover! But the monsters have gone berserk!"

Steamax sheathed his sword then whipped it out in front of him, slashing apart at least 60 monsters in one slash. Affimojas followed up with a flying jump strike which burst with fire on impact, sending more monsters to oblivion. Bravo followed third with a down stab into the earth which destroyed even more monsters. CFW Magic let loose a storm of ice on one hand, and threw her scythe with the other. It whirled around and cleaved several monsters into pixels before flying around back to her. CFW Trick used his long tongue to whip monsters away from them. While it didn't do very much damage, it did enough knockback to buy CFW Judge enough time to jump in and slash the monsters to bits. Judge called out that he was having fun.

Jayden looked back over at the deity. "Not much longer now! I'm gonna get ready!" he ran out into the graveyard, waves building up around him until he became a running torrent of magical energy, destroying everything in his path. Oliver took control of their group and began to dish out orders and tactics. Each one seemed rather effective and helpful to the rest of the group. It was no surprise that he'd been a commander in the past. Maxi grabbed his bag and threw it into the crowd. It burst upon impact with a monster, scattering small wooden boxes all about the field. Each box changed shape and developed into a puppet, some of which deployed small, helicopter rotors which allowed them to fly. Some of them had small spears or axes, while others had bows. Each puppet could fight to a portion of Maxi's strength, meaning that he'd effectively increased their power by 150% with the sheer number of puppets he had. It was enough to last them a short time at least, as the puppet had significantly less health than Maxi did, and got destroyed in very few hits. However, by the time that the last puppet was destroyed, the last few monsters had been either dispatched, or had fled. Their victory, however, was postponed by a monstrous roar from behind them.

The Deity of Sin had revived and was ready to battle again. As the group of eleven got ready to fight, they were, once again, cut short by a sound from afar. This one, however, was one that foretold a much better outcome. Oliver commanded everyone to get out of the way as blue light began to illuminate the area. Luno would've smirked seeing as he knew what came next. A brilliant blue fireball of energy and ice came blazing into view at an unprecedented and ludicrous speed, tearing a hole through the Deity as it passed by. It was no small wonder that it had taken Jayden a nearly thirty minute run-up to pull off a move like that. Granted, they were lucky the Deity was still sluggish. That move was easy to see coming. Hard to move out of the way of, but she could have just as easily prepared for it. Luno made a metallic noise akin to a sigh. Maxi produced an actual sigh. Oliver, on the other hand, had a proud smile on his face.

"That was a Vorpal Strike." Oliver said with a retained, but positive fervor, "I taught him that."

Jayden came wandering back after a few minutes. His face was covered in dirt and soot. He looked at the CFWs and then at Jordan. "Alright then..." he said. "Come. We have much to talk about."

* * *

 **Leave me a comment if you have something to say, or have questions!**


	37. Begin the End

**A/N - See? I remembered the chapter for this week. Don't worry about it. Who's ready for Arc... whatever arc this is? Was anyone keeping track? I wasn't. This probably isn't a shock to anyone, but I'm sort of losing interest in this series. No one really comments to let me know if what I'm doing is right or wrong, so by this point, I'm just finishing it so we can move onto the next part and never discuss this again. If I dropped the series as a whole, I doubt anyone would care, but I promised myself I wouldn't let the series die. I still have to work out what's going to happen to Puppet Master, so I don't know what will come of anything by this point. It's all 'maybe's.**

 **That aside, let's get into...**

 **HDN: Paradox, Chapter 37; _The Beginning of The End_**

* * *

"It's not something I want to do either, but if we do, we practically secure our victory." Histoire explained, "We should be grateful to Origin for his sacrifice. Now then... who is going?"

"We've already worked out a team." Oliver told her, "It will be Maxi, me, and Jayden moving in for active support with the goddesses and them, you and Jayden's helpers will be part of support effects, working Basilicoms and side-quests."

"I'm familiar with Steamax and Affimojas..." Histoire said, "But who are the four others? They used to be the four CFWs, correct?"

"Correct." Maxi informed her, "There's Bravo, Malice, Judas and Thaddeus. Need a refresher on who does what?"

"If you would not mind." Histoire admitted.

"Right..." Maxi explained, "Here's the deal: Bravo is a tanker, he has a few magic based sword skills, but he's mainly physical. He has a ton of HP and can take a lot of hits. Malice is your mage. She doesn't have as much HP as the others, but she can do the most damage from a range by far. Also, she's the fastest; I wouldn't worry about her getting hit by normal attacks. Judas is your ultimate DPS attacker. He can buff physical attack pretty much forever. He's mostly physical though, and has to get up close to attack. Judas can take a lot of hits, and is pretty fast, so you can use that to your advantage. Thaddeus is an interesting piece of work. He uses a whip for a weapon, so he doesn't have to get very close, and he can inflict tons of status effects with just his normal attacks. Thaddeus is a bit more fragile than Judas and Bravo, so just mind that."

"What about Jordan and me?" Neptune asked, "You've got a plan for the two of us, right?"

"Yeah, you two are both pretty strong on your own, so you're gonna help out in suppressing the CFWs and the Deity when they pop up."

"You got it." Jordan acknowledged.

"When do we leave?" Histoire asked.

"If everyone's ready to go, then we leave now." Oliver told them. "Who's ready?"

"I think it's time we put an end to this confusing story..." Jayden said quietly.

 **[A/N: Passive Aggressive stab at myself, much?]**

* * *

Jayden brushed his nose with the back of his hand. "This is new..." he muttered. "What's with all of this?"

"This is most likely the result of all the timelines blended together." Jordan answered, "And this nation is most likely Planeptune."

"If the nations are blended together, are the CPUs still the same?" Maxi inquired, "I mean, we won't know until we check, but what could we be dealing with?"

"Anything really." Oliver replied, "So be prepared."

"The first order of business is to check in the Planeptune Basilicom, then advance from there." Histoire told them, "There is no knowing what awaits us."

It wasn't a far distance to the Basilicom, but they talked on the way. "So what's the full layout of the plan?" Neptune asked

"Well we're not sure what exactly we're up against." Jayden replied, "Practically every timeline has been blended together at this point, so it might not even be ASIC that we have to worry about at this point."

"So do we just storm the castle and announce that we're taking over, or do we join their team as new party members?" Jordan asked, "I'm not sure if either option is a good idea."

"We've gotta do one or the other, so why don't we pick one and just go with it?" Jayden suggested, "I'm personally one for going in guns blazing. We don't have time to mess around."

"Your choice." Oliver said, "It's your world at stake here."

"Then the time for words is over." Jayden announced. "Let's act." They found their way to the Basilicom, and Jayden saw himself in. "Excuse me." Jayden asked the Histoire at the desk. "I'm looking for Lady Purple Heart. Where can I find her?"

"The goddesses have just left on a mission." Mini-Histoire replied, "I'm afraid you'll have to wait until they return. Lady Purple Heart, Purple sister, and Lady Iris Heart are all absent."

"They're all..." Jayden thought about it, "Wait, what's today then?"

Mini-Histoire gave him the date, "Why do you ask?"

"You mean they've gone to the graveyard, then?" Jayden asked, "Then I've arrived earlier than I thought. Thank you. I'll be on my way then."

"Hold on," Mini-Histoire objected, "How did you know that?" she asked.

"It's simple." Jayden informed her, "Technicalities in the system. Also..." he smirked, "You just told me." he ran back out, despite Mini-Histoire's protests, leaving the others to explain while he bolted across Planeptune, took to the skies, and flew into the Graveyard in record time.

Looking on from a distance, he could see that the CPUs had already engaged CFW Magic. It looked like they were also already at the end of their strength. Knowing he had an opportunity that would be normally impossible, he rushed forwards and smashed headfirst into CFW Magic, catching both her and the CPUs off guard. Magic hissed.

"I hate you." She stated bluntly. "Why must you keep getting in my way?"

"So you do know who I am!" Jayden exclaimed, "Great! I feet all warm and fuzzy inside!"

"You're ridiculous," Magic spat, "It's ridiculous to think that I still respect you. You're strong, but now the question begs, how powerful are you?"

"How strong am I?" Jayden asked. Flames burst into existence around his body, energy summoning itself into existence. Just the pressure of his residual energy was incredible. "That has yet to be determined I suppose." Jayden turned to the CPUs. "You'd best be leaving. It wouldn't do to have you caught in the crossfire."

"We're goddesses, we-"

"Don't argue with me." Jayden demanded, "Just move."

The CPUs sensed that there was no more room for an argument. They picked themselves up and ran while they could.

"You insult me." Magic huffed, "Do you think you can defeat me yourself?"

"No." Jayden said, "I don't think I can beat you."

"Then what point do you have in telling them to run?" Magic asked, "You're just stalling the inevitable."

"You didn't let me finish," Jayden objected, "I don't think I can defeat you. I know I can."

"Words without action." Magic scoffed, "Prove to me that you are strong enough to back your words."

Magic brought her scythe down and cleaved a massive chunk of stone out of the ground. Jayden sprang out of the way, and then up into the air behind the stone. He blew the stone to rubble with a single punch, then redirected the individual pieces with magic and let them fly towards the CFW with a ridiculous force. Magic wouldn't be so easily defeated though. She deflected some of the pieces with her scythe, then counter-attacked with a barrage of magic projectiles that homed in on his position. Without drawing his sword, Jayden let loose with a single driving punch that blew through every last bullet with the same strike. CFW Magic smiled now. Jayden landed in front of her, still with no weapon drawn.

"You ARE stronger than I thought you would be." Magic noted, "Very well. Go ahead and leave. I'll make sure to be prepared for our next battle."

"I'll be ready as well." Jayden told her, "And next time, there will be no holding back. Despite the respect we have for each other, our goals are opposite. We win, or we die."

"Looking forward to it." Magic cooed.

Jayden turned and walked away. He spread his wings and flew off a moment later. He thought about what had just transpired. What could he pull from that? If anything? Probably nothing. Damn. Jayden doubled over and spit up blood. He wasn't supposed to release that much energy at once.

"I knew you were weaker than you appeared." Magic hissed, "You're a human now."

"I acknowledge." Jayden replied curtly, "Wasn't my choice."

Magic shrugged and gave him a sarcastic look. "Well, you're lucky I'm letting you go then."

"Yeah, whatever." Jayden hissed back, "I appreciate it, but if you could stop mocking me, that'd be great."

"No, I don't think that's possible." Magic replied.

"Whatever." Jayden shot back, "I'm out of here." He gave his wings a weak flap, only to find that he couldn't fly with them anymore. He sighed and pulled out a teleporter node that he kept for emergencies. "Next time, I'll be ready."

* * *

Jayden collapsed just about as soon as he got back to the Basilicom. His breathing was heavy, and he looked like he had one foot in the grave. Jordan rushed over and helped him to his feet.

"What happened?!" she demanded, "You weren't supposed to go toe to toe with Magic yet! You know how tough she is in that form!"

"I know." Jayden replied, "And I didn't. She let me leave."

"Then how did all this happen?!" Jordan inquired further, "And what the hell do you mean, 'she let me leave'?"

"I mean it how I said it." Jayden replied, "And to be frank, it's a good thing she did. Let's just get to the point. We can talk later."

"Alright, if you say so." Jordan dropped the subject, "The Histoires and the mascots have pieced together what comes next. All the CPUs are here as well."

"I see." Jayden noted. He walked up behind Yami. "Send the CPUs home. I don't need them getting in my way."

"What, like you don't need me, or the other mascots getting in your way either?" Yami snapped, "What's with you? You keep running off without us! We're sworn to protect you, so let us help..."

"It's not a matter of whether I want your help or not anymore." Jayden told her, "This is our last shot. If we screw up, we don't get a reset. There's no more do overs, no more mistakes, nor more room for error, nothing. If I can't handle what comes my way, then I have no right to be here."

"That's not true." Violet objected, "You're the reason we've made it here in the first place!"

"Yeah, I'm also the reason we're in this mess in the first place." Jayden told her. "If I hadn't decided to play the fucking hero all the way back in chapter four, then we wouldn't have this problem."

"Jayden?" Histoire asked now, "What do you mean?"

"You know where ASIC comes from?" Jayden asked, "You know where it fucking deviates from?! There's this little company that started in Lastation, it's called Avenir. You know when it was funded? Oh, I don't know, maybe over a hundred years ago? Planeptune was in crisis, Lowee wasn't even Lowee yet, and Leanbox had just been founded. Lastation was just getting started with their major factories being headed by this little punk named Chian! You know who worked for her? I did! Go back and read chapter five, people! Are we starting to ring some bells? Is anybody piecing this together?!" Jayden had everyone's attention now. "After battling Arfoire's giant skeleton thing, she erased a solid part of my memory and sent me back to the past. I needed to support myself, so I took the first job I could find! Chian's factory was a horrible place to work. There were terrible working condition, close to no pay, and the quality of the products was horrid! So I figured I'd had just about enough! I decided that I'd start my own company to rival Chian's! Anyone wanna guess what I called it? I called it Avenir! It's French! Look it up! It means future! It's not my fault that my company did so much better than hers! But it is my fault that I left it unattended once I left to go back to my own time! It was never truly wiped off the face of Gamindustri, it survived when nothing else could! It was the last faction of resistance against a genocidal goddess! What do you want from nothing?!"

"Wait, so you mean to tell me that all of this is YOUR doing?!" Iris Heart barked, "How can we trust you then? Why should we bother!?"

"You know, I'm not too sure myself." Jayden said, "But it doesn't exactly help that you and the other goddesses are nothing but a waste of time. I apologize that you need my help to win a fight, but maybe if you hadn't spent the last couple years growing weak and complacent instead of doing work and getting stronger, then we wouldn't be at such a disadvantage. So, if anyone has a problem, then they can see themselves to the exit. Ladies, there's the door. Don't let it hit you on the way out."

"You're starting to piss me off, you little brat!" White Heart shouted.

"Good, get angry." Jayden fired back, "See what good it does you when you can't think straight and you drive yourself up a wall only to find out that there's no good to come of it. Are you going to swing first, or are you going to keep complaining?"

White Heart mumbled something profane, but otherwise back up.

"Alright then," Jayden said, "So the plan is to revive the Deity of sin-"

"Now, HOLD ON just a second!" Noire tried to interject.

"Practice what you preach, I wasn't finished." Jayden said, cutting her off and continuing, "I've done this once, it'll work again. We're going to revive the Deity of Sin, but we're going to skip some steps. Magic can't seem to decide which team she thinks I'm on, so I'll pose as an ASIC worker and carry out the plan. After the Deity has revived prematurely, she'll be weak. We can finish her off then."

"Yes," Mini-Histoire said, "And while he's working on that, I have a plan for all of you. Jayden is far stronger than any of you, so we'll be preparing to at least be of assistance to him in the coming battle, but there are some extra steps."

"Indeed." Histoire continued, "Scattered throughout Gamindustri now are many things we are going to need. The first of which is the aids of the two other CPUs that we have yet to meet, those being Lady Yellow Heart and Lady Cyan Heart. Both of them possess strength far greater than your own."

"This is true." Mini-Histoire took over again, "And further, we will need to find the Remnants of Soul left by the previous CPUs in each nation. Their most powerful pieces of Equipment. These are: The Sever Helm from Lord Cratos of Lastation, The Frozen Mirror's Edge from Lord Dyntos of Lowee, The Chrono Shield from Lord Segata of Planeptune, and The Fatal Sash from Lord Boros of Leanbox."

"Now then," The two Histoires said together, "Are there any questions?"

* * *

Jayden stood in the ASIC Recruitment office. On the way there, he'd run into a pair of friendly faces.

"So let me get this straight..." The NPC in the office told him, "Your name is Boss." he pointed to Jayden. Jayden, or Boss rather, nodded. "Okay, your name is Sushi?" he looked over at the young man standing next to Jayden. Sushi nodded. "Alright, and your name... I didn't catch your name." He looked at Yuuki.

"She's not applying." Boss told the NPC, "It's just us two." his voice was gruff.

"Got it. What are your talents and weapons?" The NPC asked.

"You wanna go first?" Boss asked Sushi. He shrugged in response. "Alright, go first."

"You got it, Boss." Sushi said, "I use swords. Seven of 'em to be exact. I'm also decent with magic and I can deflect bullets with my blades. Other than that, I have a wide variety of skills ranging from high single target damage to AoE decimation. What more do you need to know?"

"That'll do." The NPC replied, "Now you, Boss."

"Right." Boss told him, "I'm mainly a tank, but I've got access to some pretty good magic. I use two shields."

"I'm sorry," The NPC said, "But could you repeat that?"

"I said I use two shields." Boss barked, "Did I stutter, or do you have a problem with that?"

"No problem here." The NPC replied, "Now then, last but not least, do you have any criminal record?"

Sushi and Boss looked at each other. Yuuki giggled. Boss looked the NPC in the eye.

"None that you need to know about." he told the NPC.

The NPC chuckled, "Hey, around here, we respect that. You're hired, but since you're new, you'll be working with the underlings. You two shouldn't have any problem getting promoted."

"You better be right." Sushi said harshly, "I didn't come all the way here for a job with a crappy pay."

"Oh trust me," the NPC told them, "You'll be paid more than you can figure what to do with. Now then, your first assignment is to convert your friends and family to Arfoire devotees."

"Already done, mister." Yuuki chirped, "I'm even wearing my ASIC t-shirt, see?" Yuuki pointed at her shirt, and the NPC nodded approvingly.

"Good. You're already on the right track." The NPC told them, "Then I'm afraid you'll have to step outside for the next part, little lady. Your brothers have to report to their new boss."

"Sure thing!" Yuuki said. She kissed both Jayden and Sushi on the cheek before leaving. "Have a nice day, you guys!" Yuuki then left to go report the good news to Histoire.

Jayden, or Boss rather, blew an impatient bubble in his gum. Sushi pulled out a faux cigarette and lit it, popping it in his mouth.

"Let's get on with it." Boss snapped.

"Right." The NPC said, "Good to see you're eager to act. Your boss's name is Under- er... Linda. She's the chick in the ASIC hoodie with green hair and grey skin on the floor down. You can't miss her. Also, you both get ASIC hoodies. These should provide you with a decent agility boost for running away if things don't go well, and they also boost your defense by a decent percentage."

Sushi whistled at the garment before both of them put them on. "I like the stats on 'em."

"Hey, Boss..." The NPC said, "Technically these are supposed to be for the higher ups, but I think these'll suit you. Also, Sushi, take these. Not everyone gets a personalized look, but you guys seem like you'll be good workers.

The NPC handed Boss a pair of ASIC sneakers and an ASIC cap. Sushi was given a scarf and fingerless gloves. The boys equipped this new gear and the NPC gave them another nod.

"Alright then. You two look good." The NPC handed them ID cards. When they took the cards, their pictures materialized in the top left corner. "These are your scrolls. You can use them to contact other members, post missions to the board, set up traps, order gear, assign new members, track followers, check social media, check you and your party's status, order ASIC gear to deliver, or even set up events to grab shares for ASIC. Now then, get moving."

"Thanks a bunch." Sushi thanked the NPC before the two boys headed to the elevator. Boss stretched and yawned as the elevator descended. "You think we fooled them?"

"I'm quite confident." Boss replied. "But we should remain in character until we leave the premises. There are no cameras in this elevator, but I have no doubt that they're everywhere else."

The doors opened up and Sushi and Boss walked out into the main hall where workers were milling about and getting ready to go on missions. Boss spotted Linda among them. The two boys approached and introduced themselves.

"I'm Boss." Boss said and shook Linda's hand. "This is my brother Sushi. We're your new subordinates, Chief."

"I have subordinates now?" Linda said, raising an eyebrow, "Hey why not, I'll take whatever they'll give me. The name's Linda, but Chief sounds nice. So you're name's Boss and you're Sushi? Got it. Nice to meet you guys."

Jayden was slightly surprised at how nice the girl seemed to be. She seemed pretty devoted to the job.

"Now then, if you check your scrolls, I've just added you guys to my party. I'm the party leader, so you'll both get the same assignments as I do, that cool with you guys?" Linda asked. Sushi and Boss nodded. "Alright, cool. Have a look at your mission assignments. Miss Magic failed to defeat the CPUs yesterday, so it's our job to help her fix it. We mainly work under Miss Magic, but from time to time, we'll do jobs for the other CFWs, alright?" Sushi and Boss nodded, "Good, good. Out first job is to go and capture or kill the mascot of Planeptune, so first we gotta figure out where it is. Any ideas, either of you?"

"I'll check my sources." Sushi told her.

"And I'll get my networks on it." Boss told her, "If Sushi doesn't find it right away, we'll know within the next three hours."

"You've got some good networks." Linda noted with a sharp whistle.

"Yes, I do." Boss replied with a smile, "Thank you for noticing. Now that you're my boss, I daresay YOU have some good networks."

Linda smiled, "I like the way you think, Boss."

"Glad to hear it." Boss told her, "We're gonna be a team so it'll be good to get along. Sushi and I have some impressive chemistry already, so it's just between us and you."

"Good to see you've got this all sorted out. While we're waiting on your networks to get back to us, what say we have a look around the base?"

"I'm game." Boss replied, "Find anything, bro?"

"Nah." Sushi scoffed, "Nothing that I can learn from here. If I had my rig at home, I'd have it in no time, but my phone's not enough to break the security. They really don't want anybody knowing."

"Since when has that ever stopped us?" Boss replied with a sly grin. Sushi chuckled back and shrugged. "Exactly, my bro. It doesn't. It never will Even if they stop us today well..." Boss gave a chuckle and a sinister grin.

"Tomorrow is another day."


	38. I give up

Unless I get a miracle, I can't find the inspiration to continue this branch of the story. It will happen, but rather slowly. Between a lack of comments or interaction with viewers at all, this story has fallen flat on its face. I look back at previous chapters and I'm ashamed to see what might have bee a proper story. So here's what we'll do.

I introduce you to HDN: Paradox; Vengeance

and HDN: Paradox; Unanswered Questions

Vengeance will be a conclusion to what I tried and failed to start here on the first paradox. It may also spring forth a separate series that I've been planning for a while... we'll see.

Unanswered Questions... it's self explanatory. There are a few questions I never answered that I'm almost certain many people forgot about. Like...

What happened to Jayden's alternate souls?

What about Eryn?

What about that other nation that attacked in chapter 13 and 14?

What about Appland?

All of these questions will eventually be answered.

I'll probably wind up grouping the two together into one story with deviating plot lines, or whatever. I'll try and keep it less confusing than this clusterfuck of a story was.

That being said, I haven't done my outro in a while so...

That's all I have for you today, I hope you all have a lovely rest of your day. Enjoy life and live it to the fullest, friends. Be it here, or anywhere otherwise, may we meet again upon another chapter, another story. **A huge thank you to anyone who gave me support while this was still going!** I'll see you guys in a few months with the new series!


	39. Dear Mr Diz

I see no other way to contact you than to post a new chapter. You didn't give me a link to follow for a private message, but rather posted anonymously. I know this technically breaks the rules of the archive, but you didn't give me much of a choice. The wall of text was a bit off-putting, and some parts of it were hard to read, but you put up with my mistakes, and you have some quality advice, so I appreciate that.

 _ **First off**_ , _Thank you!_ I'm glad you posted a comment to show me what you think.

 _ **Second off**_ , what made you post this now? Now that I'm closing down the story and I've lost the drive to continue it, now is when you decide to tell me? I'm sorry but, why didn't you tell me this earlier? I love your advice, every last piece of it, and if I was going to rewrite the story, then yes, that's what I would do. However, that would have been nice to know at the moment where I made the mistake...

 **On the topic of faltered backstories:**

Unlike what I have planned for Jayden's future, you called me on my bluff. I don't really plan any of what happens in the next chapter of this season of the story, I was making it up as I went along. So yes, the whole being the child of the true goddess thing did come out of nowhere, and so did Jayden's sister. I have an entire document full of ideas for the series that were never used.

 **On the topic of Alternate souls:**

I did sweep them under the rug, as I did with a LOT of components as you pointed out. I had planned for Jayden to bring it up, but I simply never got there. As with most of my plot points, they were hard to execute. Their backstories were indeed rushed. I wanted to stick to the strict outline of one chapter a week, but that just resulted in crappy quality. I did like the idea of struggling for control, but for some reason, the idea of presenting Jayden with yet another imperfection that would confuse the story even further simply didn't sit right with me. I acknowledge that you don't want your character to be perfect, but younger me couldn't come to terms with that.

 **On the topic of Side characters:**

Now this is something that I did purposely. I did brush them out of the way prematurely, but that's because they all have separate stories to be told. The only problem is that the execution fell flat on its face. Nothing more to say there. If I wrote the story again, I would probably outright remove them.

 **On the topic of you last sentence: (?)** _-Not sure..._

"It's not that I hate this story." You wouldn't be the first. You are allowed to hate the story, you won't offend me, but I will offer you a rebuttal or ask why. However, you provided me with a very descriptive explanation, so good on you.

 **On the topic of... must I say... redemption...**

Would anyone want me to try writing it again? I'll leave it up to those reading. IF you got this far, thank you, and now I present to you a choice.

Should I try it again?

Or should I just leave it be?


	40. Vengeance

Jayden gripped his head with both hands and stared at the ground. He was defeated. He'd been left behind. He looked around at the dark, empty void around him. There was nothing in the room. It was empty. This was what he was left to work with.

Everyone had given up on him by this point, and he didn't mean the goddesses, or the oracles, or even the makers. When he said everyone had given up on him, he meant those people in the other world. People had stopped coming back to check on him. Comments had stopped surfacing. If nothing else, he'd lost the support of the author. What was he supposed to do now? Was he supposed to write his own history? There was nothing here that would enable him to do so. He shook his head.

"Yeah, some fucking hero I turned out to be."

He stared into the void, thinking about what to do next, or if he COULD do anything next. He wasn't seeing a whole lot of options. He had a look at whatever he had on him. Fidelity's blade had turned grey, probably indicating that her soul had died. With some regret, Jayden lifted her blade over his head and smashed her to dust on the ground. At the very least, someone could rebuild her, and maybe her soul would return. His phone no longer worked, not that there was anyone he really could have called. He didn't have the mascots anymore, they'd left him just as everyone else had. He sighed. The only one he had left was Zhen.

Zhengyi Xiongshou, the blade that he'd started his adventure with, back in chapter ten. His light still remained vibrantly lit, and his blade still remained deadly sharp. Jayden had a seat and waited, sitting still. He couldn't fix this damnation of his, only the author could do that.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself, Jayden."

He heard a voice, a girl.

"Don't call me that," ̶J̶a̶y̶d̶e̶n̶ ordered, "That name doesn't belong to me anymore. You of all people should know that, Jordan. Or should I call you by your proper name?"

"Oh, wizened up, have we?" ̶J̶o̶r̶d̶a̶n̶ inquired, "Do tell."

"I came around to the realization a while ago," ̶J̶a̶y̶d̶e̶n̶ told her, "And I've decided that if the author has abandoned me, then I'll abandon anything he's given me."

"Now hold on just a moment." ̶J̶o̶r̶d̶a̶n̶ told him, "If you're going to say that... you know he's already working on a new story with you, right? All you have to do is give him a few years to finish."

"That Jayden... he and I are two different people." ̶J̶a̶y̶d̶e̶n̶ told her, "You should be able to tell that. You've seen him, right?"

"I have." ̶J̶o̶r̶d̶a̶n̶ confirmed, "He's a weakling. Not like you an I. Yet, I've tested him once already. He passed easily, and with flying colours."

"Interesting." ̶J̶a̶y̶d̶e̶n̶ noted, "If he is done in his first season, then he will be coming here soon, will he not?"

"He will." ̶J̶o̶r̶d̶a̶n̶ answered, "And when he does, we should be prepared."

"Agreed." ̶J̶a̶y̶d̶e̶n̶ nodded, "But... There's not much point to me continuing. Everyone's given up on me."

"Not true." The girl took something out of her pocket, "Have a look, Jay- er..."

"What is it?" ̶J̶a̶y̶d̶e̶n̶ ignoring the name.

"Have a look."

She showed him a note. It was an email, intercepted from the Author's account:

* * *

 _Story Follower: KurumiFan97 is now following HDN: Paradox_

 _The following member has added your story to her/his Story Alert subscription:_

 _Pen Name: KurumiFan97_

 _Story: HDN: Paradox_

* * *

"When was this?"

"2-13-2018, 8:02"

"Just a bit less than half an hour ago?"

"She isn't the only one. Many have started to look on in your absence. And what of AIYF? He never left, you know. You owe it to them, to HIM, if nothing else, to at least try again."

"I can't use anything that's already here. It just isn't going to work."

"It can, and it will. We just need to take the first step."

"And that is?"

"Who are you?"

̶J̶a̶y̶d̶e̶n̶ turned to her. "I'll take the name **Drake**. This way, I won't abandon my old name completely, but it should be known that I am different from Jayden. You understand, don't you, Tamamo?"

̶J̶o̶r̶d̶a̶n̶ nodded, "Of course, brother." she gently held his shoulder, "I'll help you if you need it."

"I might." ̶J̶a̶y̶d̶e̶n̶ noted, "But first," he gathered energy in his palms, and when the light died down, he was holding a boy, a younger version of himself it seemed; colourful eyes, white shirt, black shorts, grey shoes, and long black hair. Yet, the boy didn't have a streak of white like ̶J̶a̶y̶d̶e̶n̶ used to. Instead, his hair was jet black.

"What's this?" Tamamo inquired, "Sending him off?"

The young boy disappeared in a veil of light from Drake's arms.

"Indeed." Drake confirmed, "Jayden will need that power."

"What of you then?" Tamamo inquired, "And all of the alternate souls?"

"Yes... I know..." Drake nodded, painfully, knowingly, "I have become them. All of us together... we have one goal. And now we have one body and mind. I have one body. I have one mind. I must continue."

"What do you intend to do?" Tamamo inquired further, "Maximillian and Oliver moved on with the new Jayden. Luno's gone on with them, too."

"It's understandable." Drake answered, "but there are fallen brethren here who I must take with me."

"Such as?" Tamamo raised an eyebrow, her interest piqued.

"Return to me, Lancelot Meiyo Ankokuboshi and Kurolipan Penumbra!"

The two boys seemed to appear from the floor, and slowly drift upright into standing positions. They both took a breath and looked at Drake.

"You're looking a little different." Lance noted, "Something happen?"

"You have no idea." Tamamo snarked.

"Well then, let's get an idea." Kupo nodded firmly, "I'll follow you to the end of the earth and back, dude. Now what's going on?"

Drake ran his black, fingerless-gloved hand through his dark, grey hair. There was one, white streak up dead center.

"This is who you've chosen to bring back?" Tamamo inquired, "Interesting choice."

"They're much better than the damn Shakespearean speaking brats and the pyromancer that you chose. Where'd you even find her, anyway?" Drake shot back.

"You wouldn't believe me, even if I told you straight," Tamamo teased, "I see you've got this under control. I'll take my leave. Let me know if you need help, brother." Tamamo kissed his cheek, then vanished in a veil of smoke.

"Okay, maybe odd place to say it, but your sister is pretty hot, dude." Kupo noted, completely ruining any semblance of a mood that they'd built up."

"She isn't really my sister." Drake told Kupo, "And I hardly think about visuals anymore. Though do know, that I will protect her like a sister, so if you make any moves, I will not hesitate to destroy you."

"Noted, noted." Kupo nodded, knowingly, "I'll not overstep my boundaries, then."

"Smart choice." Drake slammed his hands together, and the world burst back into view.

"How'd you do that?" Kupo asked, "And why didn't you do that in the first place?"

"I didn't have the willpower." Drake answered, "But.. somehow... Thank you, KurumiFan97, and Thank You, AIYF. This is going to be painful, and I expect it will take a long time... but you've given me the will to finish what I've started. That being said..."

Drake stared out over Gamindustri, and all of the different things that it had become from all of the timelines being fused together. He smiled for a moment, almost peacefully, before his smile distorted,

* * *

 **"W̬͔̘̩̝̥̦̳ͦ̎ͦͨ̑ę̷͖̜̭̓ͧ̀'̢͍̳̹̉̎ͫ͊͝r̗̱̰̦̙͕͉̫̍̆̕͝e̴̤̘̫͇̳͛ͮ͑͗̏ ̶͔͈ͭ͊̈̌͑̓̈́g͆̒̋͂ͦ̋҉̣͇̺͈̜o̴͇͈̐́ń̨̳̞̥̞̂̌͂ͨ͐ṋ̵̯͉̞̩͎͈̈́̆ͫ̃ͅa͍̩̩̬̩̥͗̀̓̓̋ͨͨ̀͢ ̵̬̲͎̭̼͇̪̉͘͢b̨̖̪̩̮̰̖ͪͤu̞̱̱̖͋̒̅̑͋̍r̢̠̠̩ͩ͌͟ṇ̝͈̹̲͓̪͙̝͂̍͐̌͂̽̋ͮͭ͟ ͙͉͈̘͍͋̐͊̓ͥ̽͗̑t̶̰͕̟̳̝͆ͪ̇ͪ̽̄ḧ̞͙̫́͑́ị̡͖͎̺͕͗̓̊ͦ͟͠s̸̶̟̥̭̪̿ͤ̆̔ͫͩ͗ͅͅ ̳̥̩̹͖͇̘̼͕ͧ̍f̯͇̻͙͚̗͔̦͇̑ͫ͗ͭ̆ͣ͛͝͞ṷ̶̵͚͐ͧc̰̭̜̦͚̖ͦͨͤ̓͒k̶͖̟̠͎͓̓͋͜ḙ̸̢̥̝̦̭̘̱̂ͤͦͣ̌̿̎̿͘r̭͚̩͗̈̑̐͐͑ ͉͉͊͊̅̐ͭ͂t̛̖̭͔̞͍͐͋o̪͙͕͈̲͙͚̅̎ͦ̎͗ͦ ̶̶̜̹̳̞͉̥̻͊̌ͫ́ͯͣt̵̟̅͡h̻͉̮̳ͯͭ̏̑̆́͡e̻̳͛̓͘ ̯̳͎̯̘͓̬̻ͫ̐͂ͦͭg͔͈͖͍̗ͧ̈͛̈́ͤ͆ͩ͠r͈̟̤̩̪͙̤̜̫ͩͧ͋ͩ̀͘o̤̍ͫ͛̋̄͂ͭ̾̓ų͍̙͎͖͖͕́̓̓͒̆n̵̸͔̪̥̹͕͈ͣ͌̊ͨͩ͒d͎̗͖̣̔ͭ̐̀."**


	41. One Way or Another

Drake walked back into the ASIC headquarters with Kupo and Lance behind him. The NPC at the desk raised an eyebrow.

"I've brought you some more recruits." Drake explained.

"What's up, Boss?" The NPC asked, "Also, if you two boys could fill out the paperwork over on the left, I'll have you two working before the day is over. Boss here is already a valued employee, so I'll put in a good word for you."

"Much appreciated." Drake nodded, "The fellow with light armor is Lance and the other one is Kupo. That's all you really need to know for now."

Lance and Kupo handed the NPC forms with only the name slot filled out. The NPC smirked.

"You're a weird guy, Boss." he punched a few keys on the keyboard, "You're all sorted. You'll be in the same squad as Boss and his brother, Sushi. Here are you custom ASIC ID cards, you'll be given personalized items upon your first promotion. Get to work."

"See ya around, mate." Lance gave a friendly, wave-salute to the NPC and followed Drake to the elevator with Kupo.

"What are we doing first, Boss?" Kupo asked once they were in the elevator.

"We're dealing with a different timeline, so the Goddesses haven't been rescued yet. We should only have to deal with the CPU candidates for a while. Regardless, our first mission was to locate the Planeptune Mascot." Boss told him, "Sushi should have found it by now. Once he gives us the location, the five of us are going after it, and we're gonna destroy it."

"Destroy it?" Kupo inquired, "Isn't that going against what we've been trying to do so far?"

"Not exactly." Drake answered, "ASIC wants to remake Gamindustri. I say we make it happen. We're dealing a with a mess that's been left behind. Let's crash this trash and give ourselves a clean slate."

"Sounds harsh." Kupo figured, "Shit, I'm down."

"Wait, but haven't we been fighting to keep the Deity of Sin from destroying this world we've fought for?" Lance demanded, "What point is there to any of that if we bring the Deity about now?"

"First thing, there is nothing that 'WE' have fought for. I've been fighting this whole time and only now have I brought you two along." Drake shot back, "And furthermore, anything that has happened until just last chapter has occurred on the whim of another man. Someone whom I have no connection to anymore."

"The author, you mean?" Kupo inquired, "I'm grateful for having been created by him, I just wish he would've stuck around long enough for me to get to know him."

"I knew him..." Drake recalled, "He was almost like a father to me. Almost."

"Well, if he's abandoned us, then I say we carve the way for ourselves." Lance figured, "If we're going to allow the deity to do our resetting for us, well... I can't say I 100% understand, but I won't complain."

"Appreciated." Drake nodded firmly, "I've had enough complaining from those we were supposed to be helping."

"The goddesses?" Lance confirmed, earing another nod from Drake, "But... aren't you and Neptune...?"

"No." Drake bluntly refuted, "I'm not going to follow an act that someone else laid out for me. Neptune and I were never in love. There's no point to continuing this act now that there's no one left that cares about it."

The elevator arrived at their floor. Drake shook hands with Sushi and stopped in front of Linda.

"Got some new friends?" Linda inquired, "Tough lookin' boys. Well Sushi here's already found where the mascot is. Some dingy, swamp-lookin' place. Can't say I'm exactly eager to visit."

"You can hang behind if you want." Drake offered, "I'll take the boys, and we'll clean up the mess ourselves."

Linda shrugged, "I appreciate it, but I really should tag along. I could use a workout and some EXP."

Drake crossed his arms, "Regardless, we should move out now. I'd be willing to bet that we're not the only one's hunting down the mascot, so we need to get there before anyone else."

"Then we'd better move quick." Sushi interjected, "My sources say that there's someone headed to grab this thing right now, and they left a while ago."

"Then let's quit wasting time." Linda nodded, "Grab your shit and let's move out, boys!"

* * *

Linda was right, this area was a dismal mess of a swamp with a network of metal platforms snaking back and forth such that one could traverse the area without wallowing in mud. There didn't seem to be anyone else here. Drake and Linda walked side-by-side, with Sushi, Kupo, and Lance behind them. The monsters stayed out of their way, eyeing up Drake either with fear or knowing that they had no chance of winning against five experienced fighters. Drake walked with confidence, and Linda could tell he'd been here before.

Drake heaved a sigh, "About twenty chapters ago I made a promise to someone." he recalled, "I intend to keep that promise. But as for the mascots..." he swore under his breath, "I'm sorry, Violet... This must be done..."

They marched up onto the platforms, winding through the different paths, back and fourth until eventually, then they got to a wider, open space, on the opposite end of which being a lonely, floating purple orb. Drake slowly approached it and reached out when-

"Stop!"

Drake turned to see a party of three. Nepgear, Compa, and IF. Their eyes filled with recognition upon seeing him.

"Well, this is kick in the teeth..." IF growled.

"Hardly." Drake turned around, his arms formally rested behind his back, much like a butler does, "I wasn't expecting you to recognize me. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

"What have you done?" IF demanded, "And don't think try to play dumb with me! You've been messing with time, haven't you? Why can't you trust us enough to help you fix this damn problem?"

"See, I knew there was a caveat somewhere." Drake snarked, "I'm sure I explained what I was trying to do at some point or another, at least... I'm sure YOU'RE version of me did. No, no... I had to get rid of the other guy. He was a good kid, I'm sure he was, but too... jumbled and troubled... for what I have in mind."

"So?" Nepgear inquired further, "What... what DO you want?"

"Simply put, I'm fed up with you lot," Drake replied, "And it would see that Tamamo didn't fully erase you when she gave me the gift of this one, final timeline." Drake sighed, "Very well."

Lance drew his plasma saber. It was triangular in shape and bore a magnificent resemblance to a covenant energy sword, but it lacked the gap in the middle and had a twisted handle. That, and the whole thing glowed a brilliant blue-green when ignited.

"I'll take care of them, Boss. Just enjoy the show." Lance offered.

Drake sneered, "Very well! Very well." he snickered evilly, "Do put on a good show, Lance, would you kindly?"

The three girls backed away as Lance approached, the light from his weapon reflecting off his armor.

"W-wait!" Compa was shivering from fear, "W-what... why do we need to fight? You don't have to do this, Jayden!"

Drake's smile disappeared off his face, "I'm going to ask and only will only ask politely ONCE... and if I have to remind you, it will NOT be so polite... do not call me that. I go by Drake now. Like I said; I got rid of the other guy."

Lance whirled his plasma blade around, opting to leave his open hand empty. He had two large, powerful crossbows on his back, but he didn't draw either of them. IF stepped up in front of Nepgear and Compa, her qatars positioned defensively in front of them.

"Alright... I'll handle this!" IF yelled confidently.

Lance and IF closed the distance between each other quickly, and IF took the first attack, swinging her left arm towards his chest, aiming to knock him back and end the fight quickly, but Lance, as if predicting this ahead of time, sprang upwards and over her, landing behind her. Lance raised his blade to strike out at IF, but then flicked it backwards, deflecting a shot from Compa. He turned, swept Compa's legs from under her and hit her in a way that wasn't extraordinarily painful, but did push her a fair distance away, making her roll across the ground. Lance had no opposition to fighting female opponents, but to be fair, Compa was a healer, and very clearly not suited for fighting someone like him.

Lance then turned back around and locked blades with IF. IF pushed back as hard as she could, but she very clearly wasn't a high enough level to win a blade lock against someone so strong as Lance. IF regained her footing, then threw one arm out at Lance.

"Demon Flames!"

Lance made no attempt to move out of the way as a twister of fire enveloped him. It lasted for a few moments before dying down. However, when Lance became visible again, IF realized that she'd been countered again. Kupo was holding out his hand, generating a magic shield around Lance, which had protected him from IF's skill.

"Hey! No fair!" Compa shouted from where she was.

"No fair? Hardly." Drake rebutted, "It just so happens that, unlike you three, my party members understand how to support each other."

To prove the point, Lance raised his sword and Kupo now gestured towards it. The magic shield around lance shattered and the energy redirected into the blade, turning it a raging red-orange colour. Lance now gave a mighty swing and a wave of flames swept IF away, draining her health to a critical level.

Nepgear watched in horror, and immediately was at IF's side. Lance went to approach and finish them off, but Drake stopped him.

"That example will do for today, Lance." Drake explained, "We've gotten the point across that we mean business. They've no way of fighting back as they are."

Nepgear slammed a fist into the ground and stood up. Honestly, it was the first time that anyone there had seen her anything close to angry.

"Alright, I'll be serious now!"

A flash of light and a beam of energy yielded Nepgear's HDD form standing before them. She rushed towards Lance faster than he could react, and there was a flash of sparks... but Lance was still standing. Matter of fact, he was still unharmed. Nepgear looked at what she had hit, and almost immediately regretted any action she had just made. Blocking her blade was a massive, titan blade, part bloody, Sonic silver, part shining, Black-light blade.

"It's your first time going HDD, isn't it?" Drake inquired, "If not your first, then probably one of the first. You're inexperienced, and frankly, you're still unstable."

Drake pushed against Nepgear's blade, prompting her to push back, but he whipped his sword back and whirled it around as soon as Nepgear tried, leading her to stumble forwards, at which point, Drake raised Zhen up over his head and slashed Nepgear across her back, shattering her HDD form and flooring her faster than she could compensate for.

Drake sighed and stored his blade, "Lance." He garnered the knight's attention, "Take these three and leave them back in town by the Basilicom or something like that. If they wake up here, then they may be able to trace us somehow."

"You got it." Lance picked up the three girls and leapt away, disappearing from view.

"Now then." Drake looked down at the orb before him. He could feel its warm glow. He wondered if she still remembered him as fondly as he did for her.

"H-hello?" Drake shivered upon hearing her voice. The orb floated up to his face level, "You... you came back for me. I was so scared... but... I... I heard... I saw what happened."

Drake felt a pang of guilt momentarily. This was someone who'd known him before... before this change that he'd made. But if he wanted to revive the Deity of Sin... she was in the way. He raised his fist.

"I'm sorry about this." Drake remorsed, then brought his hand down and smashed the orb out of the air, its pieces. scattering across the floor.

"W-whatever I... I did..." He heard the voice one last time, "I'm... I'm sorry..."

He turned away, not wanting to spend any more time here than he had to.

"Well that's one of the stupid things down." Linda remarked, "Let's-"

"They aren't stupid." Drake hissed, "Even if we aren't on the same side, I might expect you to treat them with respect."

"Hey, remember which of us is the higher up here." Linda shot back, "But... if it bothers ya that much, I'll keep it in mind."

"Please do." Drake confirmed and slung Zhen over his shoulder, "You'd do well to respect the things that are stronger than you can fathom. The disc may have been fragile, but she was an adept fighter. If we didn't need to be rid of her, I might have fancied recruiting her."

"With that kind of defense, she couldn't have been THAT tough." Linda figured, crossing her arms.

"You might be surprised." Drake explained, "They have human forms which are more apt for anything other than supplying divine power to the nation. Other than that, their human forms are strong enough to have no problem taking care of... let's say..."

There was a loud growl behind them. Drake turned to see what it was.

"A fenrisulfr." Drake observed, "Typical. You'd best be on your way, mutt. I'm in no mood to have the likes of you in my way."

The fenrisulfr roared at him and the others.

"You have exactly ten seconds to get the hell out of my way before I erase you." Drake threatened.

The fenrisulfr made the mistake of taking a step forward. Drake took a step forward, the ground breaking under the sheer force of him simply taking a step. However, before he could advance any further than that, the fenrisulf burst into pixels. Sushi slightly fixed his scarf.

"Appreciated." Drake growled.

Sushi smirked, "Hardly worth the trouble, much less a thanks, Boss."

"Wait, how..." Linda gawked at Sushi, "You didn't even move!"

"Not that you saw." Sushi corrected her.

"Sushi's got some quirks about him that it's best not questioning, Linda." Drake patted her shoulder as he waltzed by, back in the direction they'd come from, "Come on, let's go report in. Someone text Lance and let him know to meet us back at HQ."

"Right..." Linda agreed, "We report directly to Miss Magic, so we shouldn't keep her waiting, just in case she needs to head out anywhere."

"Agreed." Drake waved a hand to his two remaining companions, "No use wasting time."

* * *

Drake walked in to the debriefing room behind Linda. His trio of companions remained outside.

"Now this is a surprise..." Magic cooed as they stood before her, "Though not at all unwelcome. Pray tell, what are YOU doing working for ASIC, Ja-"

"Drake." Drake spoke through bared teeth, "I don't go by that name anymore."

Magic was a bit taken aback by his sudden interjection. Not to mention, his voice, several tones deeper than it used to be, was easily intimidating.

"Now what about..." Magic seemed almost conflicted now, "Surely you remember all that we've talked about?"

"We were destined to join forces at some point." Drake seemed to completely ignore her question, "I simply expedited the process."

"Indeed..." Magic smiled deviously, "...and I'm SO much happier for it... now then... tell me... I don't sense the Planeptune Mascot anymore... I suppose that's YOUR work... isn't it?"

Drake and Linda nodded silently.

"Well done, my sweet Linda..." Magic praised Linda first, then turned to Drake, an almost sultry look in her eyes, "You were once allies. Even I know that."

"I did what had to be done." Drake nodded once more, "Obstacles must be removed."

"You've got guts, Drake, dearest..." Magic licked her lips, "I like a man who knows how to take control..."

"I was just doing my job." the raven-haired, young man spoke again, "I'd hardly think anything of it."

"Well, is there anything else that we need to know about?" Magic inquired further.

Linda cleared her throat, "That damn Goddess Candidate and her punky friends were there too."

"So at any rate, we know that the CPUs and their sheep will be hunting them as well." Drake finished.

"I would recommend that you head to Lastation next, then." Magic suggested, crossing her arms, "Else they may arrive ahead of you this time. But be wary. There are candidate in both Lastation and Lowee as well. If you should encounter them and they get in your way, do NOT hesitate to remove them from the equation."

"THAT goes without saying." Linda barked, "Screw all those damn candidates. If they team up, they'll probably try to save their older sisters. Let's just get to Lastation."

Drake smirked, figuring that Linda's statement didn't really need any further comments, so instead, he merely held out his hand and Linda gave him a solid fist-bump.

"There's a teleporter gate in the second basement floor of this building." Magic informed them, "Get going."

* * *

"I bet anything they head to the guild office first." Kupo figured as they walked through the ashen, dark streets of Lastation, "If they want to beat us, they're gonna need a hefty amount of shares, and that Guild Agent with them... that was the Wind Walker of Gamindustri, wasn't it? She's gonna want intel, being a member of the Guild herself."

Lance nodded, "And we need to keep an eye out for that other Candidate while we're here. Until then, we should set up somewhere and start working on where to find this next mascot."

"Actually..." Drake raised an eyebrow, "Guild quests don't sound like a terrible idea. I might peruse while you guys set up, if you don't mind."

"It's all the same to me..." Linda flippantly shrugged and flipped her hands in a 'whatever' kind of way, "But like, why? You short on credits? Payday's tomorrow, so I'm holding out."

"It's not a matter of money." Drake corrected, "But some of those guild quests raise shares for US and take them away from the Goddesses... might make things easier for us in the long run."

"Not a bad idea, Boss!" Kupo agreed, "Alrighty then, we'll see ya later, but don't stay out TOO late!"

Drake smacked Kupo over the back of the head, then walked to the guild office, crossing the short distance in a quick, easy stroll. Upon arriving, he wasn't pleased with what he was seeing.

"While you're gathering intel, allow me to accept some quests!"

 ** _Nepgear._**

' _Damn it..._ ' Drake thought, and quickly slipped outside.

He changed his equipment to slightly heavier, cybernetic armor, in opposition to his black, ripped hoodie, that covered most of his exposed skin, then had Zhen change into a large mace. Before heading back inside, he equipped his shields at his sides as if they were armor plates, then approached the desk. There was already someone else there as well, and Drake wasn't pleased to see her either...

 ** _Uni._**

...but he did his best to fit in.

"Not a lot of foot traffic today." Drake spoke up as he approached the counter, his voice different than before such that it wouldn't be recognized. Neither girl at the counter noticed him yet.

"Excuse me, I'd like to see what quests are available." Nepgear and Uni spoke up at the same time, "Hm?" they turned to face each other, both of them thinking about how young the other was and whether or not the other would be able to do these quests.

'They must not remember each other, then.' Drake deduced, 'It's only me. That's damn well problematic as hell.

"You here to do quests too?" Uni asked Nepgear, to which the other candidate nodded.

"Huh? M-me?! Y-yes, that's right!" she confirmed.

"Huh..." The raven-haired goddess candidate flipped her hair to the side, "Are you sure about this? I mean, you're still just a kid."

"Huh?" Nepgear stumbled over her words, "B-b-but... you're a kid, too..."

"I'm an exceptional exception." Uni replied in her usual, sassy way, "You have no idea how tough I am. But, I need to get stronger so I can..."

"So you can...?"

"Er... nothing." Uni caught herself, "Why are you looking for a quest here, anyway?"

"I wanted to help the people of this nation!" Nepgear answer earnestly, "I want to try and regain some shares for the CPUs."

"Wow, aren't we serious?" Uni continued sassing Nepgear, "That speech make you sound like a goody-two-shoes honor student."

"Wh-what the goodness is wrong with being serious about a serious problem?" Nepgear returned, her own innocence preventing her from understanding.

Uni giggled a bit, "Yeah, sorry, sorry, I just haven't talked to a girl my age in a while."

Nepgear had a moment of realization, though maybe not about what she should have: "Come to think of it... it's been awhile for... No, I've never met a girl my age before! Everyone's older than me."

' _Dummies_.' Drake immaturely mocked them in his head, ' _And they have no idea about each other at all_...'

Drake ignored a few moments of their idle banter as he had a bit more of a look around the guild office to refresh his memory, then he approached the guild counter.

"Alright then, Nepgear, since we're acquainted now, you wanna team up and complete a quest together?" Uni suggested.

"You mean... you and me?" Nepgear repeated.

"Yeah! I always do this stuff alone so it might be a... good... change of... _pace_..." Uni fell silent as Drake approached, each footstep making a slight clank against the ground, then stopped in front of the counter. Both girls remained dead silent. He didn't look at either of them.

"Can you show me the Guild Quests that you've got available right now? I need to burn some time."

Drake mentally kicked himself for not having a backup plan. There were no quests here that raised shares for Arfoire! He shrugged it off, not literally, but figuratively, then decided that this one quest seemed easy enough, provided him some nice rewards, and didn't raise the Goddesses shares too much...

"I'll have the Rebeat Resort quest." Drake requested.

"Sorry, mate. These two young ladies just accepted that one." The NPC told him, "Can I interest you in another one?"

Drake's eyes glowed red, now showing through the visor of his helmet, "Sorry, I think you misunderstood me. I clearly asked you for quests that are _AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW_. So if this quest was already taken, then **_why_ ** was it there?"

"But these two just took the quest..." The NPC shied away from the counter.

Drake slowly looked at Uni first, who tried to puff up her chest and stand her ground, but cautiously took a step back. He then slowly turned to Nepgear who turned pale all at once.

"So _what's_ the problem?" Drake asked again.

"Hey, buddy, what's YOUR problem, huh?" Uni suddenly spoke up, putting her hands on her hips and taking a few steps towards him.

Drake silently turned to Uni, then turned back to the NPC.

"I'll register you for the quest right away, sir..."

"Thank you." Drake growled, then turned and started to walk out.

"Hey!" Uni followed after him, "You think you can just muscle in on our quest like that?!"

"If you finish the quest before me, it will be no problem for you." Drake told her, "All you have to do is work diligently, and I'm sure you'll finish first."

"Well YOU listen HERE, Mister!" Uni started, but was soon interrupted by Nepgear.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!" the lilac candidate paused behind the two of them, "Please don't fight! Uni and I were already doing this quest together! Maybe you can join us, too? You look so strong, I'm sure with the three of us we'll be done in no time! Please? Please don't fight!"

Drake looked at Nepgear, taking in her outburst, then turned and looked at Uni.

Uni rolled her eyes, "I'll put up with you, if you just HAVE to come with us."

Drake had half a mind to walk away, but he supposed that he might be able to gauge Uni's skill level, or at least see what kind of thing he'd be up against in the near future.

Drake instead, extended his hand to Uni for a friendly handshake, "Tetsu. I hear you're Uni, and your friend is Nepgear."

"Tetsu?" Uni raised an eyebrow.

"Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu." Drake repeated, as if administering his full name, "My parents were the awkward, introverted sort of type.

"I can tell." Uni took his hand and shook firmly, "I hope you're a good fighter."

"I'll shoot that back at you." Drake snarked.

"Tetsu!" Nepgear extended her hand for a handshake, "Nice to meet you!"

Drake shook Nepgear's hand next, "Likewise."

"Let's just do this quest." Uni dismissively flipped her hands and started walking towards Rebeat Resort.

Nepgear frantically chased after Uni, and Drake stood still for a moment.

"What the hell have I just gotten myself into?" Drake pondered, "Damn, damn, and damn again! To hell with it all. I'm going to do this, because I have no choice. I will accomplish my goal, even if it kills me."

Drake watched as Nepgear tripped, which startled Uni, prompting Nepgear to spring back to her feat and fire a slew of apologies at Uni before almost breaking down into tears.

Drake sighed, ' _It damn well might with how things are going_.' But he was determined. He would do it. He would get it done.

One Way or Another.


	42. Conflict of Interests?

Drake marched at the front of the group, Zhen in the form of a spiked mace on his back. Nepgear and Uni walked behind him, watching as monsters cautiously sidled out of his way. Drake checked the quest log again and confirmed what they were looking for.

"Tetsu?" Nepgear garnered his attention and he turned to face her.

"Yes, Nepgear?" He answered, trying hard not to show his disdain.

Nepgear poked her index fingers together and looked up at him. Drake had to admit that this was kind of cute.

"The monsters around here..." Nepgear observed, "They look like they're afraid of you."

Drake shook his head, "Smart decision on their part." He kept walking now.

"Goodness!" Nepgear cried, "Why are they afraid of you?"

"Chances are he's a lot higher level than we are, Nepgear." Uni leaned and whispered to the lilac candidate. Drake decided to pretend like he didn't hear this.

"Tetsu?"

"Yes, Nepgear?" Drake didn't turn around this time and kept walking.

"What level are you?" She politely asked.

Drake now stopped walking and thought about how he would disclose this information, then decided not to.

"I'd prefer not to say." He answered honestly.

He then observed that this platform didn't connect to the others, so he grabbed the AGI booster laying on the ground and walked back the other way. As they continued up the path, Nepgear and Uni quietly exchanged dialogue about their mysterious party member. IF and Compa shortly joined them and joined in on the banter.

"Who do you think he is?" Nepgear asked.

"He's the first guy I've ever seen apart from NPCs, so I've got no clue." Uni answered, "So he's gotta be important somehow... Maybe he can help me..."

"Help you with what?" Compa interjected.

"N-nothing!" Uni replied a bit too quickly, "Have you guys ever seen him before?"

"No, never." Nepgear answered, deceived of the truth, "He's the first boy I've met who didn't turn into a villain or mysteriously disappear."

"It looks like he's pretty tough." IF observed, "You think he'd be willing to help us take out Evil Jay and his crew?"

"Goodness, with that mace, I bet he'd do it easily!" Nepgear noted, then turned to him, "Tetsu?"

"Yes, Nepgear?" he answered similarly to the other two times.

Nepgear tilted her head to the side just a bit and walked up next to him, "What exactly do we need here?"

Drake stopped walking and one hand slowly moved up towards his shoulder. He turned back to the rest of the group, prompting them to stop walking.

"Boss Lizard." he stated as if warning them.

"Boss what-now?" Nepgear inquired before Drake's hand lashed out and pushed her back, moving her out of the way of a claw. IF caught Nepgear and jumped back.

Drake heaved Zhen up over his shoulder and swung the massive mace, black-light spikes forming along the edges as he swung, smashing the Boss lizard over the head and staggering it, forcing it to back up. Taking the opportunity to push it further, he continued his spin, swinging Zhen around again and smashed the Boss Lizard to the ground. Unfortunately for him, it pushed itself back up. Drake jumped back as IF jumped up and over him and slashed down with both of her Qatars. Nepgear then came from the left and slashed across its face with her beam sword and Uni fired off two shots from her blaster. Drake now ran in again and slid under the Lizard's arm, which swung out as they approached. He was moving incredibly quickly, and Nepgear realized that it was due to the AGI booster he'd picked up earlier. He must have activated it at some point. He then whipped around, revealing Compa on his back who stabbed the Boss lizard with a poison attack before Drake jumped back, firing magic blasts from his hands on the retreat. The Boss lizard staggered once more, so Drake jumped way up into the air, turned over and whipped the mace back out, slamming the Boss lizard over the head so hard that it disintegrated into pixels before it even hit the ground.

"Good to see that you're all capable of fighting." Drake observed.

"Yeah, but holy wow, Tetsu!" Nepgear cheered, "You're amazing!"

Drake actually blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, "Ha ha... thank you... though I'm not much for compliments."

"I'm surprised." IF added, "That was quite a strategy you just had us execute, and without saying a word, at that. Keeping the boss staggered so that we could attack without worry is quite clever."

"Yeah, blame it on playing too many RPG games." Drake shrugged, "Honestly, I'm just doing my job. I'm not used to having party members, but when I've got them, I like to protect them."

Uni frowned, "Sounds like you've got some baggage there, Buddy." she teased, but not hurtfully, "Well know that we've got your back. You're a pretty good strategist and you deserve to be recognized for that."

"You don't understand how many people just don't understand that." Drake sighed, "That aside, we need to keep moving. Killing one of these can mean bad news if you stick around too long."

"Did we get what we need?" Compa asked.

Drake checked his inventory, "Seems so."

"Not so fast!"

They turned around and Drake grimaced at what he saw. Linda, Kupo, Lance, and Sushi had appeared behind them.

"Now what are you brats doing in Lastation?" Linda inquired, snickering to herself, "Got something you need to get done? Maybe looking for that mascot? Well give up! We've already found it."

"Crap..." IF muttered, "Not how I was hoping this would go..."

"You're telling me." Drake hissed.

"You know these guys?" IF asked.

Drake took a moment, trying to gauge how to answer.

"Got yourself a couple of new party members, huh?" Kupo snickered, "Well even without Boss here, we can still take you lot! Come on, then!"

Oh gods.

Drake registered at this moment that they didn't recognize him. In this armor with a different voice, and a different weapon, he figured that was to be expected, even though he himself had not expected it. What was he supposed to do now? If he blew the Tetsu disguise, he imagined that he wouldn't be able to join the candidates as a double agent anymore seeing as they would just begin to suspect anyone who looked like him. Yet, if he didn't then he would have to-

"Alright, let's fight, then!" Uni accepted the challenge, and Drake mentally sighed.

There was no time at all between now and their last bout. These girls had no chance against Linda's party. Unless... unless he decided to play both sides of the fence. Yeah... yeah! He realized that he liked that idea. Give them false hope, then let them down right at the end. Maybe that was the way to go about this.

"Tetsu..." Nepgear pointed, quivering slightly, "They... they beat us really bad the last time we fought..."

"And it wasn't so long ago..." IF grumbled, "I'm thinking we might not stand a chance against them."

"Then we'll do our damn-well best!" Drake roared, and then heaved his mace up over his shoulder, "If you believe in the goddesses, then say your prayers and get serious now!"

He uttered this line in the hopes that Nepgear might understand to go into her HDD status, but forgot about what might happen if Uni saw this, or even if she decided to use her HDD as well.

Just as he expected, both girls transformed, drawing their larger weapons, but neither said a word about the other's HDD. Did they not care, or were they disciplined enough to focus on the more pressing matter at hand? Since they said nothing, Drake decided to do the same for the time being. With Nepgear and Compa on his left and Uni and IF on his right, he held his mace with about as much confidence as he could muster at the moment.

"Pick your combatant and exchange blows!" Drake instructed, "Help out where you can and move on to help the others once you finish!" Drake leveled his left hand at Sushi in an accusative point, "You're mine."

IF charged and slammed her qatars against Lance's energy blade.

"You're gonna pay for makin' a fool outta me last time." IF growled.

"Big words, little girl." Lance taunted, "That's a lot of talk. Can you back it up?"

Lance deflected IF's qatars and slashed her across the chest. IF stumbled back, hunched over in pain, then got back up a moment later. Lance was surprised momentarily, but only until he gazed past IF and spotted Compa behind her.

"I see..." Lance observed, "A combined strength makes for a greater attempt... but it is only that. An attempt."

"Oh quit being all mysterious and just admit that we're going to beat you!" IF charged in again.

This time IF swung one qatar and occupied Lance's blade, then swung the other around and caught him in the side of his face. She smirked, knowing that this had to hurt, but Lance got back up with a glare. He was quite durable. Lance now rushed in and struck out at IF, swinging back and forth at incredible speeds, but IF was no slouch either, and since she had two qatars over his one blade, she managed to keep up. IF suddenly jumped back, leaving Lance to swing at air before she rushed forwards, he qatars bursting into flames on the way, and smashed through Lance's guard, making him stagger back to where Compa had snuck around and was now in position to bonk him over the head with her giant syringe. Lance fell to the ground, and tried to get back up, but IF marched over and stamped him in the face with her boot, putting him down for a while. IF and Compa hi-fived, then took a quick assessment of what else was going on.

Nepgear was trading blows with Linda, both of them being able to swing about as quickly as the other, clashing back and forth. For just being a metal pipe, Linda's weapon was surprisingly effective and packed a surprising amount of punch behind it. Nepgear imagined she must have had a very high strength stat. Linda raised her pipe up over her head and went to swing down towards Nepgear, but the candidate reacted quickly enough to slash Linda across her body while her arms were out of the way and she was open. Linda fell back, then quickly recovered to her feet. She spun around Nepgear's next attack and smacked the lilac girl across the face with her pipe. Nepgear stumbled, crying out in pain, and recovered, then stumbled away slightly.

'She's remarkably strong for an underling...' Nepgear thought to herself, 'I don't know if I can beat her alone!'

Linda jumped up and swung her pipe overhead with one hand in an aggressive, overhead swipe towards the enemy. Nepgear ducked out of the way, not wanting to take another heavy blow seeing as the first one had really hurt and had taken a sizable bite out of her HP. Nepgear slipped back, then used Mirage Dance to tip the battle in her favor. Linda dodged a few of these attacks, but took most of them at full force. Linda backed up and considered her options. Nepgear swooped in from above, but Linda jumped back and countered the attack so hard that she sent Nepgear flying out of her HDD form. Before Linda could celebrate her victory or finish Nepgear off, IF came flying in from behind her, grabbed onto her back, and grappled her to the floor, swinging wildly. Linda managed to throw her off, but not before Compa had healed Nepgear, bringing her back to a full HP pool. Linda sighed, then heaved her pipe again, ready to face down Nepgear, only for IF to jump up and roundhouse kick her in the back of the head. Linda crumpled to the floor, holding her head.

"And... stay down." IF snarked, and checked on the other two girls.

Uni and Kupo were exchanging fire, but Uni could tell that she was a bit outgunned. While her HDD blaster was incredibly powerful, Kupo had several heavy machine guns with him and was gaining on her faster than she cared to admit. When Kupo was in range, he drew a heavy looking pair of gauntlets and axes. Uni now started to fire faster, heavier bolts, but Kupo managed to dodge them. Uni flew up in the air, noting that Kupo had no way of reaching her way up there, but when he got close enough, he lunged into the air at her.

"You can't dodge in mid-air!" Uni shouted triumphantly, "Take this!"

Uni charged a bolt at the end of her blaster and fired when Kupo was basically at point-blank range. She had to admit, she got a bit nervous when he pulled up his axes and attempted to block the shot, but it was much too powerful for him to counter up in the air like this, with nothing to push off of, and already having slowed down due to gravity. Kupo crashed into the ground, swirls in his eyes. For as much power as he had, Uni noted, he didn't have a whole lot of health. Uni now turned to Drake, thinking she could help, then saw the problem.

IF, Compa, and Nepgear wanted to help Drake as well, but his clash with Sushi was so intense, that each shockwave blew them back so hard that they couldn't get anywhere near the two of them. Sushi had five of his seven swords drawn, a testament to Drake's strength. Sushi normally fought without drawing a blade at all as his hands could cut through most things effortlessly, and at most he'd had to resort to dual-wielding to gain the advantage when fighting stronger opponents. No one had ever forced him to draw his third or fourth sword, yet now Drake had him at five, two in each hand and one in his mouth, and was pushing him hard enough that he was getting ready to draw six and seven.

Drake took a wide, heavy swing across his front, missing Sushi entirely, but even just the wind from the swing was enough to force Sushi into backing up. Sushi then lunged forward and snapped both hands in an [X] slash to try and counter, but Drake took the hit as if it hadn't happened and swung back, smashing the ground where Sushi had just been. Sushi jumped high up in the air and slammed all five swords down at Drake, only for him to jump back, just barely out of the way, and kicked Sushi back, then swung the mace upwards in an Icy Hammer Flip, chilling Sushi as he was knocked back. Before Drake could make another movement, Sushi put away all his blades, save for one, and rushed forwards, through Drake, slashing clear through him. Drake stood still, then turned to him. Sushi turned, noting that this attack was ineffective. He frowned.

"Very well." Sushi remarked, "I know when I'm beat. I'll take my leave."

There was a slight disturbance, and suddenly Sushi was gone. Linda, Lance, and Kupo had disappeared with him. Only now that they were gone did Drake fell to one knee, clutching his chest.

"Well that's a problem," he coughed.

"Tetsu!" Nepgear came running up to him, trying to help him, but he held one hand out.

"It's just a flesh wound..." He muttered, "I'll be alright."

Drake struggled to his feet proper, and heaved Zhen over his shoulder.

"Damn..." Uni remarked; even she was surprised.

"Very well, if there will be no more interruptions..." Drake sighed, "Let us head back to Town. I could use a rest."

IF and Compa walked by his sides, making sure he didn't stumble.

"Yeah, I'd say you've earned it after all that, big guy." IF remarked.

(Line)

Back in town, Drake was turning in the one guild quest while the girls contemplated their next move.

"Apologies," Drake told them, "But I must take my leave of you. I've other responsibilities to attend to."

"Don't worry, Tetsu, I'll look after 'em for you." Uni remarked, "Now that I know Nepgear's a candidate too, we've got some work to do. We've got our sisters to save."

"Goodness, Tetsu," Nepgear seemed upset, "Are you sure you can't stick around? We could use someone with your strength."

"Yes... er..." Drake sighed, "I've other things to attend to, but mayhaps we'll meet again, Little Lilac."

Nepgear blushed slightly as Drake brushed the hair out of her face.

"Okay... if we do meet again, let's team up again, okay?" Nepgear requested.

"I will keep you all in mind." Drake confirmed with a rare, genuine smile, "Good luck in besting those lot. The young man with the swords will challenge you incredibly, but I believe you may be able to match him if you train yourself and work together with your friends."

"Thank you!" Nepgear cried and threw her arms around Drake. It took him off guard, but he gently held her, then let go and turned to walk away.

"Sayonara."

(Line)

Drake's phone went off right as he walked through the door.

"He's not pic- oh, there you are, Boss." It stopped ringing as Kupo approached him, "We've got bad news for you."

"How so?" Drake asked, "I hear you found the Lastation Mascot. Do tell."

"Er... not exactly." Kupo shrugged, "Where'd you here that?"

"Don't concern yourself with where, concern yourself with why." Drake instructed, "Why would I have heard that if it wasn't true?"

"Well apparently the lastation Oracle's offering that information to high-ranking guild officers who can bring her a Treasure Gem and some Hematite." Sushi told him, "A good chunk of the latter, too."

"Well we can't buy that stuff." Drake noted, "What are you thinking? Can you find anything on where to find this stuff?" Sushi shook his head in response to Drake's question, "Brilliant, can we just surpass the Oracle all together?"

"I can't get anything on the Lastation Mascot either." Sushi admitted, "And Nepgear's gotten together with the Lastation Candidate, so we haven't got the upper hand either."

"Ah shit..." Drake palmed his face, "Anything else I should be aware of?"

"Some heavyweight lug." Linda remarked, "No clue where he came from, but he's got your knack for up close and personal with heavy attacks and artillery."

'They still don't realize that it's just me...' Drake thought, 'Maybe that's for the best. I'm not sure I could properly describe this plan to them.'

"I can see where that would be a problem." Drake noted, "Apologies for not being there to assist you. Though he must have been quite a fighter to have gained the upper hand against you lot."

"He got lucky." Sushi offered, "Nothing more. We were caught off guard, perhaps."

"That's more than fair enough, I suppose." Drake turned and walked back out the door again, "Let me see if Ms. Jinguji can't be reasoned with."

"Should one of us go with you?" Kupo suggested, "Just in case?"

"Hardly. I have no intent of ending a negotiation with a one-sided trade." Drake growled, "Now then, I'll take my leave."

(Line)

"Ms. Jinguji, I believe you've misappraised how valuable your intel really is." Drake told the Lastation Oracle, "You can tell me, or I'll damn well find the information myself."

Drake had once again assumed the guise of Tetsutetsu. He was beginning to like the feeling of it. However, he was not liking this Oracle's attitude.

"How unfortunate..." Kei replied, "Then I suppose our negotiation is at an end."

Drake observed Kei's face. She'd made one fatal error, and that was assuming that Drake direly required this information. However, because she was driving such a hard bargain, Drake could draw some conclusions of his own. He knew he had no danger of Uni and Nepgear discovering this before him, because Kei would just as well force them to find the items just as she would anyone else if they wanted the info. He doubted Uni knew. That being said, Kei smirked at him, as if waiting for him to ask for forgiveness and offer her something else. Drake turned and walked towards the door instead.

"Mr. Tetsutetsu, where are you going...?" Kei asked, seemingly surprised. It was this that let Drake know that he had the upper hand in this argument.

"I told you, Ms. Jinguji, you can tell me yourself, or I'll find out on my own." the black-haired boy replied, "So if there will be nothing else, I'll be on my way. I have no intention wasting time looking for information on where to find two completely irrelevant items instead of finding the crucial one."

"Very well..." Kei bit her lip, "Farewell, then."

'Still trying to hold strong.' Drake observed, 'Very well.'

He turned and his hand was on the doorknob when Kei spoke once more.

"One last thing before you leave." Kei requested, "Do you know anything about what happened three years ago? And mayhaps about the recent rescue attempt?"

Drake paused and turned to Kei, "I believe that you're asking for intel from me now."

"Yes, and I believe we could make a trade." Kei agreed.

"What makes you think that I know anything about the CPUs?" Drake inquired.

Kei smiled now, "Because you just told me."

Drake swore under his breath, "What do you want to know?"

"Anything you can tell me." Kei answered truthfully.

"Then I'll need information in return." Drake demanded.

Kei shook her head, "Of course. I can tell you exactly where you can find the items I want."

"Why wouldn't you tell me that in the first place?" Drake narrowed his eyes, "Is there something I need to know here, Kei?"

"Now there, Mr. Tetsutetsu, we aren't on a first name basis..." Kei smiled knowingly, "Or... aren't we, Jayden?"

Drake hissed.

"Ah right, right, you go by another name now was it... Drake?" Kei inquired.

"Just get to the damn point." Drake demanded, "I've more important things to be doing."

Drake was mentally cursing himself. His cover was blown! Or so he thought until Kei spoke again.

"Don't worry, Drake, I have no intention of exposing your secret. As far as anyone else will know, Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu and Kei Jinguji met and discussed information and negotiation in the Lastation Basilicom today. Drake Darke was never here."

"Surely you want something from me then." Drake figured, "That's always how it is with you."

"Hardly." Kei sighed and walked over to him, "I wanted confirmation that it was you, and I know only you could outwit me when it came to a business discussion." Kei wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his chest.

"Myself and the other Oracles were worried about you. Histoire especially." The Lastation Oracle told him, "We thought that ASIC had figured you out and killed you, or worse yet, brainwashed you and forced you to fight us."

"A fate worse than death, to be sure." Drake agreed, and gently laid a hand on Kei's shoulder to comfort her, "My apologies, but I have a mission that I must fulfill."

"I'm aware, and so I want to help you, but I really do need that Hematite and the treasure gem, but once I tell you where to get them, you should have no trouble getting them." She noted, "So will you help me?" she looked up at him and stepped back, "Or do you think I am already beyond saving?"

"You're a shrewd Business woman, and not necessarily always morally straightened..." Drake supposed, "But you are my friend. I know that much is true. So tell me where I can find these materials."

"Very well. Take this map, and perhaps be on your way before-"

"Excuse me!"

"Crap..." both Drake and Kei swore in unison.

Nepgear walked in alongside Uni, Compa, and IF. Drake turned to them, and Nepgear's face lit up. IF and Compa also seemed pretty happy to see him, though he couldn't read if Uni was showing a happiness to see him, or just plain confused as to why he was here. He did his best to try and think of an explanation.

"Tetsu!" Nepgear skipped up to him, "I didn't expect to see you again so soon!"

"Likewise, though it's always a pleasure to see you young ladies," Drake put on Tetsutetsu's persona, being personable was difficult, but doable.

"So what are you doing here?" IF asked, then stuttered slightly, "Er... not trying to be rude..."

"It's well alright." Drake assured her, "I was requesting some information from Miss Jinguji."

"Like what?" Nepgear inquired, "Oh! Are you helping the Oracle get those supplies she was asking for?"

"Something along those lines..." Drake figured.

Kei finished scribbling some notes on a pad of paper and handed it to Drake, "Speaking of which, these are the locations. Do come back safely, won't you?"

Drake regarded the paper, seeing as she'd already given him a map. It read: "Don't key them in yet. It would be advantageous to remain the element of surprise. Also, forgive me for insisting that they go with you." Drake gave a subtle tip of his head to indicate to Kei that he got the message, and that he'd deal with them.

"I'll be on my way then." Drake tipped his armor's visor just slightly, "Will you lot be coming along?"

"If you've come to ask me for information about the mascot, then I'll have to request that you go along with him," Kei requested, "I require those items quite direly. If you wouldn't mind, I'm sure Mr. Tetsutetsu will make quick work of it if you'd join him."

"W-would that be okay, Mr. Tetsu?" Negear requested, "We wouldn't bother you, would we?"

"Quite the contrary." Drake waved them along, "I'd be delighted to have you, if you'd accompany me."

"Then we'd be happy to join." IF crossed her arms and smiled, "If we run into those ASIC lackeys again, I'd say you're the only chance we've got of takin' them down."

"Then I'll stand as your wall." Drake smiled. He was starting to get use to this kind of thing.

(Line)

"Tetsu?"

"Yes, Uni?"

"Can I ask you for something?"

Drake looked up now, fully resting in the persona of Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu. Uni had her arms crossed and her rifle slung across her back.

"Can you help me... get stronger?" Uni requested of him.

"Whatever do you mean?" Tetsu inquired further. Wait, Tetsu? What was Drake thinking? No. Drake inquired further. Tetsu inquired further... No. Drake inquired. Not Tetsu.

"Tetsu, are you okay?" Uni asked, noticing his headache.

Tetsu shook his head. Damn it! Drake shook his head! Drake shook his head. Yes. This is what happened.

"I'll be well alright," Tetsu replied, "But what did you mean?" Crap, he was really losing it.

"Well..." Uni rubbed the back of her neck, "Frankly, I feel like I'm dragging my feet here. Nepgear's a lot stronger than I am, but I need to be the strongest I can if I want to save my sister!"

"Alright, alright, Uni." Drake stood up. Tetsu stood up? Damn! "I personally think you're plenty strong already, but if you would like me to train you, then I will do what I can."

Tetsu heaved his mace up over his head and flipped it over in his hand. It changed in mid-air, becoming a rifle on one end, while the part that was previously the spiked mace became safe to hold.

"I see that you use a gun right now, but are you capable with any other weapons?" Tetsu asked Uni, "What you have right now won't do you much good in close quarters."

"I guess I could bear to learn something else, but I'm alright with a combat knife or a sword, I guess..." Uni supposed, "Not like anyone around here can't use one of those..."

"Okay, enough with the self-deprecating nonsense." Tetsu demanded, "I won't have it from someone as capable as you." Tetsu crossed his arms.

"W-wha-?" Uni looked up at him.

Drake shook his head, "You can take it from me, and from a... friend of mine..." he thought about Garland briefly, "You're more than capable when it comes to fighting. Yet, if you want to acquire more power, then I will gladly help you become stronger."

"Well, if you're giving out free lessons, don't mind if I do." IF had materialized behind him, "Hope you don't mind, Tetsu?"

Tetsu smirked in return to IF's own grin, "Why, not at all, IF." he held one end of his rifle, the other planted on the ground like a cane, "Now then, let's get started."

Tetsu kicked the end of his rifle, sending it swirling into the air, and caught it as it came back down, firing a shot at Uni, and jumping back before doing the same to IF. Uni was caught off guard, but quickly picked up on what was happening. Uni started to return fire towards Tetsu as he brought the end of his weapon back around and smashed Uni's bullets out of the way with a blade that materialized towards the stock-end. IF swooped around and lashed out with both qatars, much like fiery claws, but Tetsu had seemingly seen this coming. He bent over backwards, blocking this attack, then started spinning his heavy mace/axe/rifle in a fashion that allowed him to parry and counter most of IF's standard attacks. IF then jumped back and attempted to cast demon flames towards him as Uni continued firing a round of girls were astonished to see that Tetsu was more than easily capable of keeping up with them both, blocking, slicing, or deflecting Uni's bullets while still keeping in time with IF's swings. Tetsu then leapt back through the air, completely out of the way of IF's demon flames, then landed on his feet a distance away, charged up energy in his palms, and let a hail of magic bolts fly out towards them. Neither IF nor Uni were holistically sure how to counter this, so they raised their guard, but the bolts simply flew past them. They turned and watched as the setting behind them exploded, the bolt carrying enough impact to put a mortar shell to shame.

Tetsu sighed and came walking back with his fingers interlocked behind his head. At some point Nepgear and Compa had decided to watch, and their faces had gone pale when Tetsu had unleashed this almighty attack.

"Hopefully, when we are done training, feats like this will be easy for you." he told them, "So we'll start at the basics, and work our way up. Once you find your inner power, you're sure to win."

Nepgear looked at Tetsu with amazement, "Y-you don't mind if we join, do you?"

"The more the merrier." Tetsu turned up his hands in a friendly 'whatever' gesture, "The more of you that I train, the more practice I get myself."

Maybe this was a bad idea. Making them stronger technically made his end goal harder to achieve. Yet... the stronger he made them, and the closer he got... that could have benefits. And the more they trusted him, the easier it would be to turn the blade later and gain the advantage. Drake smiled behind his armored mask. Conflict of interests? Hardly. This was his way of turning the tables.

This was his confirmation of interests.


End file.
